Maihaugen opens Queen Sonja’s home

Sonja childhood home maihaugenQueen Sonja's childhood home in Tuengen Allé in Oslo is made ready for transport. The house is cut into four parts and moved to Maihaugen, where the "Funk" house is re-assembled and made as similar as possible to what it looked like in 1935. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB scanpix

Queen Sonja’s childhood home opens at Maihaugen

Queen Sonja’s childhood home has been moved from Vinderen in Oslo to Maihaugen at Lillehammer. The house now opens to the public.

 

The Queen participates in the unveiling of the house on Monday afternoon in a private event for invited guests and the media, together with the King and her children, The Crown Prince Haakon and Princess Märtha.

On the day of the Royal Couple’s golden wedding anniversary, the house opens to the public at Maihaugen.

– It’s great that the house is preserved, says Assistant Communications Manager at the Royal Palace, Sven Gjeruldsen, to NTB.

Queen Sonja will tell about the house in her own program on the radio (NRK1) Wednesday at 7.45 pm, and the childhood home and golden wedding will also be the theme of the NRK TV program «Norge Nå» (Norway Now) from Maihaugen at 8.15 pm.

«Funk» style

The house, which was completed in 1935, originally stood in Tuengen allé 1B in the Vindern District of Oslo. In 2016, it was divided up and transported to Maihaugen to become part of the housing area, where detached houses from all decades of the 20th century are present. There the house is restored to how it appeared when Sonja lived in it until she married the then Crown Prince Harald on August 29th, 1968.

Sonja met Harald back in 1959 but had to wait a very long time before getting approval from King Olav to marry, as she was not Royalty. During this time, the house from 1935, built in the «Funk» (functionalistic) style, was one of the few places where they could meet.

Currently, only the first floor is restored, but next year the restoration is to be done on the second floor, as well. The Queen and her family have helped to recreate the home as it originally appeared, with much of the original inventory in place.

Cost

The total cost of the project to the taxpayers is not known, but at least NOK 14 million has been asked for beforehand.

The entire moving process and the process of returning the house to the original is an extensive and painstaking work that Maihaugen has applied to the Ministry of Culture for NOK 11.5 million in support for. The Foundation Sparebankstiftelsen DNB has donated NOK 2.5 million to the move, according to Numedalsnett.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today