St. Hallvard's Cathedral

Coordinates: 59°54′21.1″N 10°46′7.55″E / 59.905861°N 10.7687639°E / 59.905861; 10.7687639

St. Hallvard's Church ruins seen to the east. Over the ruins south side (right picture edge) partially visible foundation of Bishop Street. Bishop Street south of the ruins was built around 1880 and above St. Hallvard Cemetery, Oslo's honorary cemetery in more than 500 years

St. Hallvard's Cathedral, also known as St. Halvard's church, in Norwegian: Hallvardskatedralen, the former Oslo Cathedral and Oslo Cathedral Church was the earliest cathedral in Oslo, Norway, now ruins. The cathedral was built at the height of the Old Town market square Oslo during the early 12th century, and was used as a church until about 1655. Besides being the bishop's seat and religious center of eastern Norway for about 500 years, the cathedral was the coronation church, royal wedding church, chapel royal, and one of Scandinavia's most visited places of pilgrimage. St. Hallvard cemetery is located mainly south of the cathedral. It was the honorary cemetery in Oslo and eastern Norway from around 1130 to 1639. Here the bishops, chiefs and other prominent men and women were buried. The most prominent was interred in the church along with the kings.^[1]

Today the cathedral is in ruins. The main body in the ruins park (Memorial Park), the southern part under a concrete cap - and the concrete lid of the street of Bispegata. Towards the end of the 19th century were Bispegata extended in an easterly direction, over the cathedral site. It has been put in place to remove Bispegata's eastern part, as a result of the completion of the Ekeberg Tunnel and the modified veian resort in the lower Lodalen. In that case, the ruins of St. Hallvard Cemetery exposed, and the Medieval city triangular marketplace, Oslo squares, re-established west of St. Hallvard Cemetery.^[2] Neighboring the Cathedral was the smaller Church of the Cross.

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