The smoke watchtower
Before telephones a watchman stood there to spot fires and ring the bell.
User:Mahlum — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Narve Skarpmoen — Public domain · Jorge Láscar from Melbourne, Australia — CC BY 2.0 · Bahnfrend — CC BY-SA 4.0
A late nineteenth-century fire station building in the Gamlebyen district east of central Oslo, among the surviving examples of public architecture from that period. The building is red brick with a tall watchtower — and that tower was the original function: before telephones, a watchman stood at the top to spot smoke across the city and ring the bell. Oslo was largely a timber city and had burned repeatedly, so spotting fires was a question of survival. The building today is in other use and is not visited inside. What you do is look at it from the street, and that takes a few minutes. Its value is that it stands in Gamlebyen, the district Oslo began in: this was the medieval city before a great fire in the seventeenth century destroyed it and the city was moved west. Stone remains of the old town are still visible in a nearby park. This is a residential district off the visitor route, another face of Oslo beyond the waterfront and the museums. Free and seen at any time.
Before telephones a watchman stood there to spot fires and ring the bell.
Oslo was largely timber and burned repeatedly — fire-spotting was survival.
Stone ruins of old Oslo are visible in a nearby park.
Gamlebyen, east of central Oslo
The old town in Norwegian, Oslo's original site from the eleventh century. After a fire in 1624 King Christian IV ordered the city moved west beneath the walls of Akershus fortress and named it Christiania. The ruins of the original city — stone churches and monasteries — survive and are visible today in an open archaeological park.
For anyone staying in Oslo more than two days or interested in the city's history, yes: the archaeological ruins are free and open and explain Oslo's origin. On a short visit, the waterfront, the Bygdøy museums, the Vigeland park and the Munch museum have a far better claim.
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