Gamle Logen is a

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that may ...

and

music venue A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from a small coffeehouse for folk music shows, an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Ty ...

located at Grev Wedels plass 2 in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The hall also hosts artistic performances, conferences, banquets and private parties.

History

Gamle Logen was originally built in 1836 for the

Norwegian Order of Freemasons Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

as a

Masonic lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

. It was constructed in

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

after an initiative from

Herman Wedel Jarlsberg Count Johan Caspar Herman Wedel Jarlsberg (21 September 1779 – 27 August 1840) was a Norwegian statesman and nobleman. He played an active role in the constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814 and was the first native Norwegian to hold th ...

. Gamle Logen was inaugurated in 1839 with King Karl Johan and Crown Prince

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

as honorary guests. The main hall officially was opened in 1844 with a performance by the great Norwegian violinist

Ole Bull Ole Bornemann Bull (; 5 February 181017 August 1880) was a Norwegian virtuoso violinist and composer. According to Robert Schumann, he was on a level with Niccolò Paganini for the speed and clarity of his playing. Biography Background Bull was ...

. The hall has been centre stage for many historical and cultural events in the city of Oslo and played an important role in the development of the Norwegian cultural identity throughout the 19th century. Ole Bull is said to have discovered

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished ...

and

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

there, it was

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

's concert hall and ''Festpolonaise, Op.12'' by Johann Svendsen was performed here in 1874. Gamle Logen was left to the city of Oslo when the freemasons built their present hall in 1898. The hall has since served for municipal meetings and for the town council of the city of Oslo. Archives and the chandeliers were lost during the

German occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

(1940–45). The hall was neglected for many years after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The historical atmosphere has since been recreated. Reopened fully restored in 1988, the hall is once again a venue for concerts, banquets and balls.

References

Literature

*Dag Andersen (1994) ''Et hus i Europa. Gamle Logen 150 år'' (Oslo: C. Huitfeldt Forlag)

External links

Gamle Logen website
{{Coord, 59, 54, 25, N, 10, 44, 29, E, region:NO_type:landmark_source:kolossus-nowiki, display=title Masonic buildings Music venues in Oslo Buildings and structures in Oslo Freemasonry in Norway 1836 establishments in Norway Concert halls in Norway