Akershus Fortress and Castle: free grounds, castle tickets and museums

💡 The Short Version: The grounds of Akershus Fortress (Akershus Festning) are free, open daily from 06:00 to 21:00 via the main gate on Kirkegata. The ramparts look across Pipervika to Aker Brygge. Akershus Castle (Akershus slott) costs NOK 160 for adults and is free with the Oslo Pass. From September to April the castle opens on Saturdays and Sundays only (12:00 to 17:00); in summer it opens daily. Two military museums are in the grounds, and a NOK 320 joint ticket covers them and the castle. Or book a tour: a 2-hour guided walking tour of central Osload from NOK 142 passes Akershus Fortress, the Opera House, City Hall, Karl Johans gate and the Royal Palace in one route, so the order and the timings are planned for you.

⚠️ The castle interior is closed on weekdays from September through April. On a weekday between September and April you can still walk the ramparts and visit the Resistance Museum, but the royal halls and castle church are locked. State banquets can also close the castle at short notice.

Grounds admission, castle tickets and joint passes

Akershus is a public park and still a military site, home to the Norwegian Ministry of Defence. The grounds are free; the museums and castle charge separately:

• Where to buy tickets: tickets are sold on site at the castle entrance desk and at the Visitor Centre (Besøkssenteret), in an 18th-century red timber building beside the Karpedammen pond. Castle tickets cannot be booked online.
• Oslo Pass: an Oslo Pass gets you into the castle, the Resistance Museum and the Armed Forces Museum free. Show the digital pass at the desk.
• Audio guides: English audio guides are included in the castle ticket and cover each hall, the crypt and the siege tunnel.

Guided tours that include the fortress

Central Oslo walking tour

From NOK 142 · 4.7 stars from 1,847 reviews · 2 hours · runs daily

Oslo: Guided Walking Tour of Central Oslo with Local Guidead has run daily since 2015. It takes in the Opera House, Akershus Fortress, City Hall, Karl Johans gate and the Royal Palace, so the fortress is one stop of several rather than the whole visit.

Old Town private walk

From NOK 1,360 · 4.4 stars from 16 reviews · 2 hours · private

Oslo Old Town Highlights Private Walking Tourad stays in the old town: Akershus Fortress, Oslo Cathedral, City Hall and Karl Johans gate.

Fortress and Resistance Museum private tour

From NOK 1,518 · no reviews yet · 2 to 5 hours · private

Akershus Fortress & Norway Resistance Museum Private Tourad walks the medieval ramparts and fjord viewpoints and follows the Second World War resistance story, with optional museum tickets and private transfers.

Over 700 years of fortress history

Akershus stands on a rocky headland over the inner Oslofjord and has guarded the city since the Middle Ages:

• Medieval stronghold (1299): King Håkon V Magnusson commenced construction in the late 1290s after an uprising led by nobleman Alv Erlingsson demonstrated the vulnerability of the old wooden settlement in Gamlebyen. Håkon made Akershus the royal seat of Norway, shifting national power away from the historic capital at Bergen.
• Never taken by assault: Akershus withstood several sieges, mostly by Swedish armies, without falling. In 1716 Charles XII of Sweden besieged it for over a month and was beaten back by cannon fire and cut supply lines.
• The Great Fire of 1624 and King Christian IV: in August 1624 a three-day fire destroyed the wooden medieval town of Oslo. King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway ordered it rebuilt beneath the fortress walls in a Renaissance grid, banned timber construction in favour of brick and half-timbering, and renamed it Christiania, the name it kept until 1925.
• Renaissance palace: Christian IV turned the medieval fortress into a residential palace, adding copper-topped stair turrets, vaulted royal chambers and landscaped courtyards.
• Second World War: during the 1940–1945 German occupation the fortress was a German military headquarters and prison. Forty-two Norwegian resistance fighters were executed at the outer bastions. Vidkun Quisling, the collaborationist prime minister, was shot by firing squad in the grounds on 24 October 1945.

Inside Akershus Castle

Visitors follow an audio-guided walking route through the restored medieval and Renaissance chambers:

• The Medieval Dungeons and Daredevil Tower (Våghalsen): barrel-vaulted stone cells on the lower levels where prisoners convicted of treason were held in the dark in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
• The Royal Mausoleum (Det Kongelige Gravkapell): consecrated in 1948, it holds the marble sarcophagi of King Haakon VII and Queen Maud, King Olav V and Crown Princess Märtha. The tombs of medieval King Håkon V and Queen Euphemia are set into the chapel wall.
• The Castle Church (Slottskirken): a working military parish church that keeps its 1750 Dutch baroque carved altarpiece, pulpit and royal gallery with Christian VI’s monogram.
• The Royal Banqueting Halls: the upper level has three state halls:
  • Christian IV’s Hall: a timber-beamed reception room with seventeenth-century Flemish tapestries.
  • The Olav V Hall: a banqueting hall with arched oak trusses, used for official state banquets.
  • The Romerike Hall: the old council chamber, lined with baroque portraits of Danish-Norwegian governors.

The museums on the fortress grounds

1. Norway’s Resistance Museum (Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum)

On the outer bastion, in a 17th-century two-storey stone magazine beside the memorial execution wall:

• Underground warfare (1940–1945): clandestine radio transmitters hidden in milk churns, weapons dropped by British parachute, home-made presses that printed illegal newspapers, and sabotage gear.
• The Heavy Water raid: the Operation Gunnerside raid in Telemark, where Norwegian commandos sabotaged the Norsk Hydro plant to stop German nuclear research.
• Civilian resistance: how teachers, clergymen and trade unionists resisted through strikes and escape routes into neutral Sweden.

2. Armed Forces Museum (Forsvarsmuseet)

Housed in the 1859 Arsenal building beside the main parade ground:

• Military history: six floors from Viking longship levies through the seventeenth-century wars with Sweden and the 1814 crisis to modern NATO deployments.
• Weapons: bronze field guns, muskets, naval guns and armoured vehicles. Free drop-in guided tours run on Saturdays and Sundays at 12:00 and 14:00.

Opening hours and visiting strategy

• Fortress grounds: open daily from 06:00 to 21:00 (Kirkegata main gate) and 07:00 to 18:00 (side gates at Kontraskjæret and Kongens gate).
• Akershus Castle:
  • May to August: Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 16:00, Sunday 12:00 to 16:00.
  • September to April: Saturdays and Sundays only, 12:00 to 17:00 (closed Monday to Friday).
• Changing of the Guard: His Majesty the King’s Guard (Hans Majestet Kongens Garde) holds a guard-mounting ceremony in the fortress courtyard daily at 13:30, with a brass band in summer.

Getting there

• Main entrance: the main pedestrian gate is at Kirkegata 1, a 10-minute walk from Oslo Central Station (Oslo S) or Christiania Torv.
• From Aker Brygge and Nationaltheatret: follow the harbour quay past the cruise terminal, or go up through Kontraskjæret park above Rådhusplassen (5 minutes from City Hall).
• Public transport: tram 12 to Christiania Torv or Kontraskjæret, or any metro line to Stortinget or Nationaltheatret. Fares are in public transport in Oslo.
• Parking: there is none inside the military area. Use the underground car parks at Bankplassen or Aker Brygge.

From the bastions you can walk down to the waterfront promenade that links the National Museum with the Oslo Opera House in Bjørvika. See also 3 days in Oslo and where to stay in Oslo.