That’s what the Danish king Christian IV supposingly said back in 1624 when he decided where the new town of Christiania should be located. Eagerly waving his glove, he couldn’t wait to rebuild the old town of Oslo, which had burnt down a few months earlier. While the old town was situated to the east of the river, the king wanted to settle the new town close to the fortress of Akershus. People disagreed, but nothing could stop the king, still in his most dynamic age.

So during the next few years, Christiania (not Oslo) was built as a new city after modern priciples, with squares and straight streets. At the Christiania Torv (square), you will find some of the oldest standing buildings in the city (which was renamed Oslo in 1925), including the old city hall. This square would have been a major tourist attraction, if it hadn’t been for the car traffic which destroys it completely. Citizens of Oslo apologize to our guests.

The king’s glove is sculptured in the middle of the square. It is made by the artist Wenche Gulbransen.

From the top of our head, most Norwegians will tell you that he was Swedish. Actually, he was French (a fact that is well known to us, when we come to think of it…). As the son of a middle class lawyer, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was born in Pau in France in 1763. He entered the military forces and rose to the ranks in time to be one of Napoleon’s most succesful generals, until he in 1810, by one of historys more curious coincidences, was asked to become the heir to the Swedish throne.

As Napoleon’s luck turned, Bernadotte – now as the new crown prince Karl Johan and the real man in charge – rapidly maneuvered Sweden into the English/Russian/Preussian alliance against  France, while Denmark unhappily had to stick with Napoleon. Norway, at the time being under Danish domain, was at the table, and the Danish king lost. Bernadotte/Karl Johan got Norway as his reward, and after a few months of excited independence, under which the Norwegian constitution  was made, Norway had to join Sweden as a junior partner in a new union (until 1905).

Karl Johan became a quite popular king, even though he never spoke Swedish, and of course not any Norwegian. He died in 1844, a few years before the castle that he ordered was finished. If he could turn his head up there on the horse, he would have seen it…