Old Aker Church

The Evangelical Lutheran Gamle Aker kirke is the oldest building in Norway's capital Oslo. It is a Romanesque church, dates from the 11th century and is still used for worship.

The address is Akersbakken 26, and the church is located near the northeast corner of the cemetery Vår Frelsers Gravlund in the north of Oslo's center. It is a basilica with choir, chapel, transept and apse. As a building material, limestone was used at close range. It is the parish church of the parish in 1861 built Gamle Aker. At Aker located, one of the oldest goods Oslo, she found her first mention in 1080 and was probably of King Olav III. built. Between 1186 and the Reformation, it belonged to the convent of the Sisters of Nonneseter. In 1587 it came into the possession of the Akershus Fortress and 1723-1849 she was privately owned. The city Aker was it about is 1849 and the city of Christiania in 1852.

The church suffered damage from several fires. Since such an event in 1703, the condition of the tower and the interior deteriorated. There was a decision to be demolished, but was averted by the intervention of the city. The restoration of the exterior, including a new tower, was conducted by the German architect Heinrich Ernst Schirmer and Wilhelm von Hanno in 1861. The repair of the interior had to wait until the 20th century and was made in the years 1950 to 1955.

The cemetery has been used since the Middle Ages, and its recent extensions took place in 1929 and 1918. At present here only members of the community are buried. Prominent among the deceased are:

• Envold de Falsen (1755-1808), lawyer and writer
• Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771-1824), a Lutheran preacher, founder of Haugianer
• Christopher Hansteen (1784-1873), Astronomer

During the Second World War, the sarcophagus of Queen Maud was secretly buried in the church.