The National Library of Norway serves as Norway’s national memory. The collection is home to Norwegian knowledge and heritage.
The library at Solli plass hosts exhibitions, concerts, talks, guided tours, and lectures.
Everything is free and open to the public.
Summer opening hours: Monday to Saturday: 10am — 5pm. Sunday: Closed.
What’s happening this Summer?
Indulge yourself in the story of Norway’s medieval laws
The exhibition Upholding the law: Magnus the Lawmender’s National Law, 1274–2024 will be a rare opportunity to encounter the medieval period up close. For the first time, we have gathered unique hand-written books made in Norway in the medieval period, which until now have been part of foreign collections.
Admission is free of charge.
Exhibition: Enlightened
This is the first time everyone will be able to see and listen to some of the most unique, spectacular and historically significant cultural expressions in the National Library’s collections, dating from the twelfth century until the present day.
Among the objects in the exhibition, you will find Edvard Grieg’s handwritten score for his concerto in A minor, the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights’ periodical Nylænde, voting ballots from the Norwegian monarchy referendum of 1905, Roald Amundsen’s South Pole letters, Norway’s first website and Julie Andem’s script for SKAM.
Admission is free of charge.
The Map Centre
The Map Centre contains the world’s most extensive collection of printed maps of Norway, the Nordic countries and the High North. The oldest of these maps are from 1482, and the newest from the late 1800s.
As a collection, these maps represent both a history of the geographical epistemology of the Nordic countries and a comprehensive account of the development of the maps and the subject of geography.
Admission is free of charge.
Summer tours
Curious about Norwegian cultural history? We offer a selection of free guided tours in English this summer! Learn more about Norway in the Middle Ages and our first nationwide law in Upholding the Law, Magnus the Lawmender’s Law of the Land, 1274–2024.
Check out the world’s largest collection of maps of the Nordic countries at our Map Centre, and discover the many aspects of Norwegian history in the exhibition Enlightened.
