3289 NORWAY (Oslo) - Holmenkollen

Holmenkollen is a neighborhood in the Vestre Aker borough of Oslo, the capital city of Norway. In addition to being a residential area, the area has been a ski recreation area since the late 19th century, with its famous ski jumping hill, the Holmenkollbakken, hosting  Holmenkollen Ski Festival since 1892. The hill has been rebuilt 19 times; important upgrades include a stone take-off in 1910, an in-run superstructure in 1914, and a new superstructure in 1928. Between 2008 and 2010, the entire structure was demolished and rebuilt.

3184 NORWAY - Greetings from Norway

Norway is an unitary monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula plus the remote island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard. The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. It covers an area of 385,252 square kilometres, and has a population of 5,258,317 (January 2017). The country shares borders with Sweden, Finland and Russia, and the Skagerrak strait separates it from Denmark.  Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea.

3041 NORWAY - Norwegian Royal House

3041 King Harald V, Queen Sonja,
Crown Prince Haakon, and Crown Princess Mette-Marit

Norway is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. In this country there is a distinction between the Royal House and the Royal Family, i.e. the Royal House includes only the monarch and his or her spouse, the heir apparent and his or her spouse, and the heir apparent's eldest child. Therefor, in nowadays members of the Royal House are King Harald V, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, and Princess Ingrid Alexandra.

1014, 1117, 2976 FINLAND / NORWAY - Sami people

1014 Finland - A young Sami man

Posted on 25.02.2014, 26.06.2014, 09.03.2017
The Sami people are the indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Sápmi, the cultural region which today encompasses parts of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. Known also as Lapps, an exonym considered by them as pejorative, the Sami have pursued a variety of livelihoods (including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding), but the most representative is the semi-nomadic reindeer herding. Their traditional languages are the Sami languages (Sàmigiella) and are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family.

1117 Finland - Sami people

Although they lived in Arctic Europe for at least 5,000 years, they have been for centuries the subject of discrimination and abuse by the dominant cultures, being recognized as an indigenous people only in the last part of the 20th century in Norway, Sweden and Finland, and in Russia not even today. In the late 20th century there were from 30,000 to 40,000 Sami in Norway and about 20,000 in Sweden, 6,000 in Finland, and 2,000 in Russia, but the sources are highly conflicting, indicating a total population from 80,000 to 160,000.

2976 Norway - Sami children and a baby in komse (cradleboard)

 

Called gákti or kolt, their traditional costume is worn both in ceremonial contexts and while working. Traditionally, it was made from reindeer leather and sinews, but nowadays it is more common to use wool, cotton, or silk. It differ from community to community, and the colours, patterns and the jewellery have deeper meaning. There are also different gákti for women and men (for men a shorter jacket-skirt, for women a long dress). Traditional gákti are most commonly in variations of red, blue, green, white, medium-brown tanned leather, or reindeer fur.

2918 NORWAY - The clothing and the arms of the Vikings

Between 790s and 1066, during the period commonly known today as the Viking Age, the mere sight of Norsemen's longships aroused fear among the inhabitants of the European coastal areas and along inland rivers through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, up to Constantinople. Remaining in collective memory of Europeans primarily as fierce and ruthless warriors, the Vikings also opened trade routes, explored new territories, founded settlements and states, and even fought as mercenaries.

2816 NORWAY (Oslo) - Karl Johans Avenue in Oslo at the Constitution Day

Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday observed on May 17 each year. Signed at Eidsvoll on May 17 in the year 1814, the constitution declared Norway to be an independent kingdom in an attempt to avoid being ceded to Sweden after Denmark–Norway's devastating defeat in the Napoleonic Wars. The celebration of this day began spontaneously among students and others from early on.

2721 NORWAY (Dependencies) - The map of Bouvet Island

Bouvet Island is an uninhabited subantarctic volcanic island and dependency of Norway located in the South Atlantic Ocean, south of Antarctic Convergence. It lies at the southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is the most remote island in the world, approximately 2,600km south-southwest of the coast of South Africa and approximately 1,700km north of the Princess Astrid Coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. It has an area of 49 square kilometres, of which 93 percent is covered by a glacier.

2657 NORWAY (Oslo) - The Oseberg ship

Located at Bygdøy in Oslo, the Viking Ship Museum is part of the Museum of Cultural History of the University of Oslo, and houses archaeological finds from Tune, Gokstad (Sandefjord), Oseberg (Tønsberg) and the Borre mound cemetery. The main attractions at the Viking Ship Museum are the Oseberg ship, Gokstad ship and Tune ship. The Oseberg ship (Norwegian: Osebergskipet) was discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold county.

2384 NORWAY (Nordland) - A Hurtigruten ship and the Seven Sisters

Established in 1893, Hurtigruten (Express Route) is a daily passenger and freight shipping service along Norway's western and northern coast between Bergen and Kirkenes. Hurtigruten ships sail almost the entire length of the country, completing the round-trip journey in 11 days. The trip has been described as the "World's Most Beautiful Sea Voyage," with highlights including the Hanseatic League city of Bergen, the Geiranger fjord, and the Lofoten Islands. Beginning in the 1980s, the operators put more emphasis on tourism.

2244 NORWAY (Vestland) - Bryggen (UNESCO WHS)

Founded, according to tradition, in 1070 by King Olav Kyrre as Bjørgvin (the green meadow among the mountains), Bergen served as Norway's capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad and it was the largest city in Norway until surpassed by the capital city, Oslo, in the 1830s.

2038 NORWAY (Svalbard) - Svalbard Archipelago (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

2038 Svalbard - The peak Newtontoppen on Spitsbergen Island

Svalbard, formerly known as Spitsbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, situated about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. In 2012, Svalbard had an estimated population of 2,642, and Longyearbyen is the largest settlement. It isn't part of any Norwegian county, but rather forms an unincorporated area administered by a governor.

1452 NORWAY (Svalbard) - An aurora borealis seen from Svalbard archipelago

Nature gives us a lot of amazing performances, but none is so impressive, mysterious and beautiful as the aurora, a show of light and color that can be seen on the sky of the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Those who lived this experience say it can't be compared with anything in the world, and the photos seem to give them right. Scientifically speaking, an aurora is a natural light display in the sky, caused by charged particles, mainly electrons and protons, entering the atmosphere from above causing ionisation and excitation of atmospheric constituents, and consequent optical emissions. When it occurs in the northern hemisphere (from September to October, and from March to April), the phenomenon is known as the aurora borealis (or the northern lights), a term originally used by Galileo Galilei, referring to the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and to the Titan who represent the winds, Boreas.

1026 NORWAY (Vestland) - Urnes Stave Church (UNESCO WHS)

A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church, named so due to its structure of poles and lintels, the load-bearing posts being called stafr in Old Norse and stav in Norwegian. Once common all over northwestern Europe (probably more than 1,300 were only in Norway), until today survived very few, most of them in Norway. Actually, only two medieval stave churches remained outside Norway: one in Sweden (Hedared), and one in Poland (Karpacz - relocated in 1842 from Norway). Of the 28 stave churches in Norway, one was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (in 1979): Urnes Stave Church, probably the oldest of its kind, built around 1130.

0186 NORWAY (Møre og Romsdal) - West Norwegian Fjords (UNESCO WHS)

0186 Geirangerfjord

Located in the southwestern part of the county of Møre og Romsdal, at about 100km from the town of Ålesund, the Geirangerfjorden is a fairytale landscape with its majestic, snow-covered mountain tops, wild and beautiful waterfalls, lush green vegetation and the deep, blue fjord. It is actually a 15km-long branch of the Storfjorden (Great Fjord), one of the longest and deepest fjords in the world, and has a S shape. Along the fjord's sides there lie a number of now abandoned farms, the most visited among these being Skageflå, Knivsflå and Blomberg. Foaming waterfalls plunge into the fjord from jagged peaks, the best known being the Seven Sisters, the Suitor (located face in face across the fjord), and The Bridal Veil.