Q 01/05

Israel struck the 1993 Oslo Accords, negotiated secretly in the city, with which organisation?

A) Hamas

B) The PLO

C) Hezbollah

D) The Arab League

Answer · why

B) The PLO

The PLO and Israel reached the deal through secret talks in Oslo that began in January 1993, yet the signing ceremony, attended by Rabin and Arafat, w...

Q 02/05

Which Viking king do the sagas credit with founding Oslo around 1050?

A) Haakon the Good

B) Olaf Tryggvason

C) Cnut the Great

D) Harald Hardrada

Answer · why

D) Harald Hardrada

Harald Hardrada is the founder the sagas name, but digs later showed a town there by about 1000: Oslo marked its 900th birthday in 1950, then its 1,00...

Q 03/05

What was Oslo called from 1624 until 1925?

A) Frederikshald

B) Nidaros

C) Christiania

D) Bjørgvin

Answer · why

C) Christiania

After a devastating fire in 1624, King Christian IV rebuilt the town beneath Akershus Fortress and named it Christiania after himself; the spelling Kr...

Q 04/05

In which waterfront district did the Oslo Opera House open in 2008?

A) Aker Brygge

B) Tjuvholmen

C) Grünerløkka

D) Bjørvika

Answer · why

D) Bjørvika

Bjørvika was working docks until the 2000s: the Opera House opened there in 2008, the E18 motorway was sunk into a tunnel under the bay in 2010, and t...

Q 05/05

Which foreign capital ruled Oslo for some four centuries, until a union with Sweden in 1814?

A) Berlin

B) London

C) Helsinki

D) Copenhagen

Answer · why

D) Copenhagen

Copenhagen: the Nordic crowns were joined in 1397, barely a century after King Haakon V had made Oslo his seat, and power moved to the Danish court; O...