Oslo Hospital

Oslo · Norge · Hospital

At the foot of the Old Town, beneath the Ekeberg ridge, lies Oslo Hospital — Norway's oldest psychiatric hospital, operating until 2018. Its story begins in 1290, when Franciscan friars raised their monastery here; after the Reformation, a refuge for the city's poor and sick was built in 1538 directly on the friary's ruins, which still lie beneath the buildings. In 1736 Birthe Jonsdatter became the first psychiatric patient sentenced to confinement here, and in 1778 a dedicated ward for the insane was established — a "dollhus" where the city's inconvenient were locked away, often for life. For nearly half a millennium the same patch of ground has held prayer, plague, poverty and madness. The old wards now stand silent, and few places in Oslo carry so many layers of suffering beneath the floorboards.

FAQ

Hvor ligger Oslo Hospital?

Oslo Hospital ligger i Oslo, Norge.

Oplysningerne bygger på lokal folketro og vidneberetninger.

Image: Mahlum · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons