Oslo Map

• The origin of the name Oslo has been the subject of much debate. While certainly derived from Old Norse, it was in all probability originally the name of a large farm at the site of the first settlements in Bjørvika.

• Most modern linguists lean toward an interpretation of "Oslo/Åslo" as either "the meadow at the foot of the hill", with the name serving a topographical description, or the possibility of the name referring to an ancient site of worship in "the meadow consecrated to the gods". Both interpretations are considered equally likely.

• Erroneously, it was once assumed that Oslo meant "the mouth of the Lo river", referring to another name of the river Alna. This apocryphal story is not only ungrammatical (the correct form would be Loaros, cf. Nidaros), but the name Lo is not recorded anywhere before Peder Claussøn Friis first used it in the same work in which he proposed this etymology. The name Lo is now believed to be a back-formation arrived at by Friis in support of his spurious etymology for Oslo.

• Oslo houses several major Museums and galleries. The Munch Museum contains the Scream and other work by Edvard Munch who donated all his work to the city after his death. The City-Council is currently planning a new Munch Museum which is most likely to be built in Bjørvika, in the southeast of the city. The museum will be named Munch/Stenersen. 50 different museums are located around the city. Folkemuseet is located on the Bygdøy peninsula and is dedicated to Folk art, Folk Dress, Sami culture and the viking culture. The outdoor museum contains 155 authentic old buildings from all parts of Norway, including a Stave Church. The Vigeland Museum located in the large Vigeland Park by many people known as the Frognerpark is free to access and contains over 212 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland including an obelisk and the Wheel of Life. Another popular sculpture is Sinnataggen, a baby boy stamping his foot in fury. This statue is very well known as an icon in the city. Vikingskiphuset contains three vikingships found at Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune and several other unique items from the Viking age. The Oslo City Museum holds a permanent exhibition about the people in Oslo and the history of the city. The Kon-Tiki Museum houses Thor Heyerdahls Kontiki and Ra2.

• The National Museum holds and preserves, exhibits and promotes public knowledge about Norway's most extensive collection of art. The Museum shows permanent exhibitions of works from its own collections but also temporary exhibitions that incorporate work loaned from elsewhere. The National Museums exhibition avenues are the National Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Museum, the Museum of Decorative Arts and the National Museum of Architecture. A new National Museum in Oslo will be built in the next 10 years. The winner was Forum Artis, and the building will be located at Vestbanen behind the Nobel Peace Center. The Nobel Peace Center is an independent organisation opened on 11 June 2005 by the King Harald V as part of the celebrations to mark Norway's centenary as an independent country. The building houses a permanent exhibition, expanding every year when a new Nobel Peace Prize winner is announced, containing information of every winner in history. The building is mainly used as a communication centre.

• Oslo's cityscape is being redeveloped as a modern city with various access-points, an extensive metro-system with a new financial district and a cultural city. In 2008, an exhibition was held in London presenting the award-winning Oslo Opera House, the urban regeneration scheme of Oslo's seafront, Munch/Stenersen and the new Deichman Library. Most of the buildings in the city and in neighbouring communities are low in height with only the Plaza, Postgirobygget and the highrises at Bjørvika considerably taller.

• Oslo Police District is Norway's largest police district with over 2300 employees. Over 1700 of those are policemen, nearly 140 police lawyers and 500 civil employees. Oslo Police District has five police stations located around the city. Kripos is located in Oslo, which is a Norwegian special police division under the NMJP.

• PST is also located in the Oslo District. PST is a security agency which was established in 1936 and is one of the non-secret agencies in Norway. At least two known underground NATO facilities are located in The Oslo District, one underground in Kolsås near NSM which is one of Norway's major national security authorities.

• On 22 July 2011, Oslo was the site of one of two terrorist attacks: a bombing of Oslo government offices, and a shooting at a youth camp in Utøya.

• Oslo is an important centre of maritime knowledge in Europe and is home to approximately 1980 companies and 8,500 employees within the maritime sector, some of which are the world's largest shipping companies, shipbrokers, and insurance brokers. Det Norske Veritas, headquartered at Høvik outside Oslo, is one of the three major maritime classification societies in the world, with 16.5% of the world fleet to class in its register. The city's port is the largest general cargo port in the country and its leading passenger gateway. Close to 6,000 ships dock at the Port of Oslo annually with a total of 6 million tonnes of cargo and over five million passengers. The gross domestic product of Oslo totalled NOK268.047 billion (€33.876 billion) in 2003, which amounted to 17% of the national GDP. This compares with NOK165.915 billion (€20.968 billion) in 1995. The metropolitan area, bar Moss and Drammen, contributed 25% of the national GDP in 2003 and was also responsible for more than one quarter of tax revenues. In comparison, total tax revenues from the oil and gas industry on the Norwegian Continental Shelf amounted to about 16%.

• Oslo is one of the most expensive cities in the world. As of 2006, it is ranked tenth according to the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey provided by Mercer Human Resource Consulting and first according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. The reason for this discrepancy is that the EIU omits certain factors from its final index calculation, most notably housing. Although Oslo does have the most expensive housing market in Norway, it is comparably cheaper than other cities on the list in that regard. Meanwhile, prices on goods and services remain some of the highest of any city. Oslo hosts 2654 of the largest companies in Norway. Within the ranking of Europe's largest cities ordered by their number of companies Oslo is in fifth position. A whole group of oil and gas companies is situated in Oslo. According to a report compiled by Swiss bank UBS in the month of August 2006, Oslo and London were the world's most expensive cities.