The Armed Forces Museum of Norway ( Norwegian: ''Forsvarsmuseet - The Defence Museum'') is a museum located at

Akershus Fortress Akershus Fortress (, ) or Akershus Castle ( ) is a medieval castle in the Norwegian capital Oslo that was built to protect and provide a royal residence for the city. Since the Middle Ages the fortress has been the namesake and centre of the ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Previously it was named Hærmuseet, ''The Army Museum'' (even earlier the Artillery Museum). The museum consists of mostly army materiel. The Armed Forces Museum is the main museum sorting under the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum superstructure.

The museum's history and focus

The museum was created in 1946 when two former military museums, the

Artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

Museum (established in 1860) and the

Intendant An intendant (; ; ) was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In the War of the Spanish Success ...

Museum (created in 1928), were merged under the name Hærmuséet. At first the museum was open only to military personnel, but was opened to the public in 1978 by

King Olav V Olav V (, ; born Prince Alexander of Denmark; 2 July 1903 – 17 January 1991) was King of Norway from 1957 until his death in 1991. Olav was born at Sandringham House in England, the only child of Prince Carl of Denmark and Princess Maud of Wa ...

under the name of the Armed Forces Museum. The museum is located inside the Castle Square, in one of the old military

arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

s from the 1860s. The main purpose of the museum is to show the Norwegian military history from the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

to the present, and the museum consists of six departments: *The ancient times, military history from the Viking era to 1814. *1814 – 1905, military history from 1814 to 1905. *1905 – 1940, military history from 1905 to 1940. *1940, military history from 1940 to 1945, focusing on the land battles of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. *Naval battles, military history from 1940 to 1945, focusing on naval battles of World War II. *After the war, military history from 1945 to present. In addition, there are periods of special exhibitions.

References

External links

The Defence Museum - official site

The Armed Forces Museum
www.visitnorway.com Museums in Oslo Military and war museums in Norway Museums established in 1946 1946 establishments in Norway Museums established in 1978 1978 establishments in Norway {{Coord, 59, 54, 16, N, 10, 44, 27, E, region:NO_type:landmark, display=title

The museum's history and focus

See also

References

External links