Stand at the bottom of Karl Johans gate, by Oslo Central Station, and look west. At the far end of the street, on a low rise, sits a long cream-coloured building with a columned porch and a flag on the roof. That is Slottet, the Royal Palace, and the whole avenue was laid out to lead your eye to it.
It looks settled today, but it was nothing of the kind when it was built. The palace took a quarter of a century to finish, ran out of money halfway, and the king who ordered it died before he could sleep under its roof.
Why the palace sits at the end of Karl Johan
In 1821 Christiania was a small capital squeezed between Akershus Fortress and the harbour. Norway had been in a union with Sweden since 1814, and the king, the French-born Charles John of the house of Bernadotte, needed a proper residence for his visits.
Until then the royals stayed at Paléet, a grand merchant's townhouse in the old centre that Bernt Anker had left to the state in 1805.
Charles John chose open ground on the western edge of town instead. As the city grew towards it, the road from the old centre became the ceremonial spine we now walk along. Our essay on how Karl Johans gate became Oslo's street of state follows that story from the other end.
Built on a budget that kept running out
The architect was Hans Linstow, a Danish-born officer with little experience of large buildings. The Storting approved 150,000 speciedaler, work began in 1824, and on 1 October 1825 the king laid the foundation stone beneath what would become the palace chapel.
The ground proved expensive to build on, and the foundations swallowed the budget. By 1827 construction stopped. Parliament refused more money, partly as a protest against the king's efforts to tie Norway more closely to Sweden.
Work resumed in 1833 with a cheaper design. Linstow dropped the projecting wings and added a third storey instead. The roof went on in 1836 and the interiors were finished in the late 1840s.
Charles John died in 1844, five years before the official inauguration on 26 July 1849. His son Oscar I and Queen Josephine became the first residents. Before the opening, the columned portico that had been cut in 1833 was put back, and a steep temporary roof was replaced with the flat one you see now.
A Swedish king's house in a Norwegian capital
For the rest of the union, the palace was a part-time home. The later Bernadotte kings spent most of their time in Stockholm.
That changed in 1905, when the union with Sweden was dissolved and Prince Carl of Denmark was elected king. He took the name Haakon VII, and he became the first monarch to live in the palace permanently. The building was refurbished for two years before he, Queen Maud and the young Crown Prince Olav moved in.
Haakon VII also started traditions that still shape the building's use. He was the first king to greet the children's parade from the palace balcony on 17 May. He also began the weekly meetings of the Council of State, which are still held in the palace's Council Chamber.
The building aged badly. During Olav V's reign there was little money for repairs, and he lived mostly at Skaugum and on Bygdøy, only moving into the palace in 1968. A full renovation, carried out by the state building agency Statsbygg, began after Harald V came to the throne in 1991. King Harald and Queen Sonja moved in during 2001.
The bronze king on the square
In front of the palace stands the man who started it all. The equestrian statue of Charles John, known in Norway as Karl Johan, is by Brynjulf Bergslien, who won a competition for it in 1868. Public opinion wanted a Norwegian sculptor rather than one of the well-known foreign entrants.
Cast in Copenhagen, it was the largest single bronze sculpture yet raised in Norway. Oscar II unveiled it on 7 September 1875, on the anniversary of Karl Johan's 1818 coronation in Nidaros Cathedral.
The king salutes with his hat and looks straight down the street named after him. One side of the granite plinth carries his motto, "Folkets kjærlighed min belønning", the people's love is my reward.
Changing of the guard at 13:30
The palace is guarded by His Majesty The King's Guard, and the main changing of the guard takes place every day at 13:30 on the Palace Square. It is free to watch from the edge of the gravel.
From spring into early autumn there is often more to see. On scheduled days, the incoming guard marches from Akershus Fortress behind a military band and mounted police, up Karl Johans gate, arriving at the square at about 13:30.
The parade is led by the King's Guard itself, the Norwegian Armed Forces Staff Band or the Royal Norwegian Navy Band, sometimes with a short concert or drill display afterwards. Parades can be cancelled at short notice, especially in bad weather.
If you want to see where the guard starts, our piece on Akershus Fortress covers the medieval stronghold at the other end of the route.
Inside the palace: the summer tours
The palace has been open for guided tours every summer since 2002. The 2026 season ran from 20 June to 16 August, and the Royal Court says it will reopen in June 2027. Tickets usually go on sale in early March.
Everyone goes in with a guide. In 2026 the route began in the Ministers' Salon and continued to the Council Chamber, where the King meets the government. From there it ran through the White Drawing Room, the Bernadotte Salon, the Upper Vestibule and the Smoking Room to the Grand Ballroom and the Grand Dining Room, which can seat 220 for a gala dinner.
Tours run three times an hour from 10:00 to 17:00. Most are in Norwegian, but several each day are in English. Adult tickets cost NOK 230, and students and children aged 6 to 17 pay NOK 110. Children under six go free.
Buy through Ticketmaster in advance if you can. A small number of tickets are sold at the entrance each day, but they tend to go quickly. The ticket also covers entry to the Queen Sonja Art Stable on the same day, the old royal stables converted into an art venue in 2017.
Slottsparken: the palace's public garden
You do not need a ticket to enjoy the setting. Slottsparken, the Palace Park, wraps around the building on every side and covers about 22 hectares. It is open to everyone all year, day and night.
The park was laid out at the same time as the palace, in the landscaped style fashionable in mid-19th-century Europe: lawns, groups of old trees, ponds and winding paths. It is a protected cultural monument looked after by the palace gardeners.
Its oldest corner is older than the palace. The Queen's Park began in 1751 as a private rococo garden on a property called Sommerro and was absorbed into the park in 1840. It has a fence and seasonal hours, open daily from 7:00 to 20:00 between 18 May and 1 October.
A slow loop of the park pairs well with the nearby Frogner Park and the Vigeland sculptures, roughly half an hour's walk further west.
The balcony, the Council Chamber and a new reign
On 17 May, Constitution Day, the children's parade flows up Karl Johans gate and past the palace, where the royal family waves from the balcony. Haakon VII began that custom, and it has carried on for well over a century.
The building is also where the constitutional work of the monarchy happens. On 28 August 2026, the morning King Harald V died, an extraordinary meeting of the Council of State was held at the palace. There his son formally announced that he had become King Haakon VIII.
He kept the motto used by his father, grandfather and great-grandfather: "Alt for Norge", all for Norway. Three generations after Haakon VII moved in, the palace once again has a King Haakon in residence.
Getting there and practical notes
The address is Slottsplassen 1. The nearest stop for the metro, trams and buses is Nationaltheatret, a few minutes' walk from the Palace Square.
The tour entrance is not at the front. It is outside the palace yard on the west side, the opposite side from the square. There is no parking for cars or buses, and the nearest drop-off point is at the corner of Parkveien and Riddervolds gate.
The building does not meet modern accessibility standards, but a small lift serves the two tour floors and staff can provide wheelchairs.
On Sundays at 11:00 there is a service in the Palace Chapel, the room consecrated in 1844 above the stone Karl Johan laid in 1825.
About Sofia Berg
Sofia Berg is a lifelong Oslo resident and travel writer with a passion for uncovering the city's hidden gems. She has been exploring and writing about Oslo for over ten years.