Akershus Fortress

Akershus Fortress overlooks the Oslofjord in Norway's capital, built beginning in the late 1290s under King Haakon V after an attack on Oslo in 1287 by the rebel earl Alv Erlingsson exposed the city's lack of defense, and it soon replaced Tonsberg as one of the kingdom's two most important castles. First recorded by name in 1300, the fortress withstood repeated sieges across the following centuries, including Swedish attacks in 1308, 1449 to 1450, 1523 and 1567, and Akershus was never taken by force in battle until the Second World War, when Norwegian forces surrendered it to Nazi Germany without a fight in 1940. The Norwegian resistance leader Terje Rollem received the fortress back from the occupiers on May 11, 1945, and in the war's aftermath it became the site where Norway executed convicted war criminals, most notably the collaborationist leader Vidkun Quisling. The complex today houses the Royal Mausoleum where Norwegian monarchs are interred, the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum, and Norway's Resistance Museum, and since 2011 it has also provided the prime minister's temporary office space.