Main Square

Gate in Kirkegata, Norway

Main Quare (Stortorvet), Sentrum, the main square in front of Oslo Cathedral. The square is bordered on the east by Kirkegata,on the south by a row of houses, on the west by the roadway linking Kongens gate and Møllergata and on the north by the eastern extension of Grensen. On the square, where flowers are now sold, there are three works of art. In the middle of the square there is a statue of Christian IV, the founder of Christiania, the work of CarlLudvigJacobsen,unveiled on28 September1880. In the southeastern corner there is an animal fountain by Skule Waksvik, unveiled in 1955, when it stood on the west side of the square, in front of the main office of Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse. The sculpture – designed as a rectangular basin in cyenite with a base, and with a cock and two hens on top – was given to the city by The Oslo Society and Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse. In the western part of the square stands the fountain sculpture ’Water in Stone’, made of red granite, by Anne-Marie Backer Mohr and Bjart Mohr. They won a competition for a square decoration in 1985, but for financial reasons it was not ready for mounting and unveiling until 1994. In the northwest corner of the square there is a Narvesen kiosk, and in 2018 ’retro’ street lamps were put up on the square – copies of the first electric street lamps in Christiania erected here in 1892. The city square origin

Type:
Gate

Where:
Kirkegata, Norway

Coordinates:
59.91°N, 10.75°E

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