page_title: Architecture of Norway
section_title: Romanticism and historicism
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Norway / History / 19th century / Romanticism and historicism
caption_attribution_description: Norsk bokmål: Trefoldighetskirken i Oslo
context_page_description: The architecture of Norway has evolved in response to changing economic conditions, technological advances, demographic fluctuations and cultural shifts. While outside architectural influences are apparent in much of Norwegian architecture, they have often been adapted to meet Norwegian climatic conditions, including: harsh winters, high winds and, in coastal areas, salt spray.
  Norway's architectural trends are also seen to parallel political and societal changes in Norway over the centuries. Prior to the Viking Age, wooden structures developed into a sophisticated craft evident in the elegant and effective construction of the Viking longships. Following that, the ascent of Christianity introduced Romanesque architecture in cathedrals and churches, with characteristically slightly pointed arches, barrel vaults, cruciform piers supporting vaults, and groin vaults; in large part as a result of religious influence from England.
  During the Middle Ages, the geography dictated a dispersed economy and population. As a result, the traditional Norwegian farm culture remained strong, and Norway differed from most European countries in never adopting feudalism.
context_section_description: Norwegian romantic nationalism also had an influence on Norwegian architecture from around 1840. Following the German lead, many classicist architects designed red-brick buildings in a revival of medieval styles. Romanesque and Gothic examples were considered eminently suitable for churches, public institutions and factories. Linstow was the first Norwegian architect to be inspired by the Middle Ages in his proposal of 1837 for a square to be surrounded by public building, bisected by an avenue between Christiania and the new Royal Palace. On the north side, planned buildings for the University were to be "composed in some Medieval or Florentine style", with exposed brick-work. His classicist colleague Grosch was the first to convert to historicism and realize a number of red-brick buildings, after his 1838 visit to Berlin, where he met the famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The first major historicist work by Grosch was the neo-romanesque Bazaars and the adjacent fire station near the Oslo Cathedral, begun in 1840 and extended in several stages until 1859. Other architects followed, notably Heinrich Ernst Schirmer with the Botsfengselet (penitentiary) (1844–1851), the Gaustad Hospital (1844–1855) and the Railway Station (1854) (with von Hanno). Also in Oslo, the German architect Alexis de Chateauneuf (1799-1853) designed Trefoldighetskirken, the first neo-gothic church, completed by von Hanno in 1858.
  Most urban apartment buildings and villas continued to be built in the classical tradition, with plastered brick walls. The repertoire of historic styles was expanded in Homansbyen, Oslo's first residential development of detached villas, planned by Georg Andreas Bull. He designed most of the early villas built from 1858 until 1862 in a variety of styles, ranging from medieval to classicist and exotic.
  From around 1840, architects started to design wooden buildings in a new style, the so-called Swiss chalet style. The style and its name originated in Germany, where Swiss popular culture was much admired by the romanticists. Elements such as projecting roofs, verandas and emphasis on gables were inspired from Alpine vernacular buildings. But the style may more correctly be termed historicism in wood, a term introduced by Jens Christian Eldal. A number of residential, institutional, and commercial buildings were built in this style, characterized by ornate, projecting details. Railway stations and churches, designed by trained architects, were distributed all in rural districts and helped to make this style popular and to keep it alive in the vernacular tradition long after it went out of fashion among architects.
  The Swiss chalet-style evolved into a Scandinavian variation, known in Norway as the "dragon style”, which combined motifs from Viking and medieval art with vernacular elements from the more recent past. The most renowned practitioner of this style was the architect Holm Hansen Munthe, who designed a number of tourist resorts, exhibition pavilions and churches in the 1880s and 1890s. These caught the eye of the German emperor Wilhelm II, who visited Norway annually. He commissioned Munthe to design his "Matrosenstation" near Potsdam and a hunting lodge with a "stave church" in Rominten in East Prussia. These last buildings were destroyed during World War II.
  Architects abandoned both the "Swiss" and the "dragon" styles shortly after 1900, but elements of the "Swiss style" survived in vernacular buildings for some decades. In the recent past, producers of pre-fabricated family homes have increasingly reintroduced motifs from the "Swiss" style in their repertoire.
caption: Trefoldighetskirken in Oslo
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