Wessels plass ("Wessel's Square") is a square in

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 ...

, located south of the

Parliament of Norway Building In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...

History

Originally on the site was a knoll with a house surrounded by a garden. The Parliament of Norway Building was completed in 1866, ad in 1873 Oslo municipality bought the knoll. It was demolished around 1880 to give room for a park-like square. Named Stortingspladsen ('The Storting Square'), it was given its current name in 1891. It was named after

Johan Herman Wessel Johan Herman Wessel (6 October 1742 – 29 December 1785) was an 18th-century Danish-Norwegian poet, satirist and playwright. His written work was characterized by the use of parody and satiric wit. Biography Wessel was born and raised at Ve ...

, and a bust of him was raised here in 1891. A statue of

Johan Sverdrup Johan Sverdrup (30 July 1816 – 17 February 1892) was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the first prime minister of Norway after the introduction of parliamentarism. Sverdrup was prime minister from 1884 to 1889. Early year ...

was raised in 1964. Under the square is a walking tunnel between the Parliament of Norway Building and office buildings across the street.

Transport

Wessels plass had a light rail station on the

Briskeby Line The Briskeby Line () is a line of the Oslo Tramway in Norway. It runs westwards from Jernbanetorget in the Sentrum, Oslo, city center, passing through the neighborhoods of Briskeby (Oslo), Briskeby and Uranienborg, Norway, Uranienborg before reac ...

of the

Oslo Tramway The Oslo tram network (, short from ', 'electric') is the tram system in Oslo, Norway. It consists of six lines with 99 stops and has a daily ridership of 132,000. It is operated by , a subsidiary of the municipally-owned who maintain the trac ...

. It was served by lines 13 and 19, while it was active; westbound trams skipped the station. The square is also served by buses, and the

Oslo Metro The Oslo Metro ( or or simply ) is the rapid transit system of Oslo, Norway, operated by Sporveien T-banen on contract from the transit authority Ruter. The network consists of five lines that all run through the city centre, with a total leng ...

station

Stortinget The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

is not far away.

References

Squares in Oslo {{Oslo-geo-stub