Pipervika is a neighborhood in the borough Sentrum 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 ...

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 the ...

. It is located between the

Oslofjord The Oslofjord (, ; en, Oslo Fjord) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the and lighthouses and down to in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the Nor ...

Akershus Fortress Akershus Fortress ( no, Akershus Festning, ) or Akershus Castle ( no, Akershus slott ) is a medieval castle in the Norwegian capital Oslo that was built to protect and provide a royal residence for the city. Since the Middle Ages the fortress ...

and The City Hall Square. Today the term Pipervika is primarily used for the bay between the fortress and

Aker Brygge Aker Brygge is a neighbourhood in central Oslo, Norway. Since the 1980s and 1990s it has been a popular area for shopping, dining, and entertainment, as well as a high-end residential area. It was previously an industrial area. Location Aker B ...

. This was formerly commonly known as Piperviksbukta. It is part of the

Fjord City The Fjord City ( no, Fjordbyen) is an urban renewal project for the waterfront part of the centre of Oslo, Norway. The first redevelopment was at Aker Brygge during the 1980s. Bjørvika and Tjuvholmen followed up during the 2000s, while the r ...

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

project.

The name

The first element is assumed to refer to the brigade music's pipers (flutists) who were located in the area, the last element is the finite form of ''vik'' f 'bay, inlet'. But the Norse name of the bay was ''Gyljandi'', and this name is derived from the verb ''gylja'' 'howl, huut' (probably referring to the windy conditions in the bay). The name Pipervika ('the piping bay') could therefore be some kind of translation from Norse to Danish in the 17th century. (The verb ''pipe'' in Scandinavian in often used to describe the sound of strong wind.) Neighbourhoods of Oslo Oslofjord Fjord City {{Oslo-geo-stub