8 Old Maps of Norway and the Stories They Tell

There is something strangely absorbing about an old map.

At first you see the shape of a country, a coastline, a town or a mountain range. Then you start reading. A familiar place has an unfamiliar spelling. A road is missing. A town is smaller than expected. Borders have moved. The landscape you know is suddenly being seen through someone else's eyes.

That is one reason old maps of Norway work so well as wall art. They give a room visual detail, while also carrying a connection to a real place and a particular moment in history.

For some people, that connection is obvious. It might be the town where they grew up, the mountains they return to every summer or the part of Norway their family came from.

Others simply enjoy looking at the details.

Why put an old map on your wall?

Historical maps have a few qualities that ordinary decorative posters rarely combine:

• A connection to a real place. Choose your hometown, family region, favourite hiking area or somewhere you have travelled.

• History you can actually see. Old spellings, roads, borders, coastlines and settlements reveal how places have changed.

• Something worth looking at closely. Detailed maps reward another look instead of becoming background decoration.

• A personal gift idea. A map of Bergen, Trondheim or Lofoten can have far more meaning than generic wall art.

• A natural fit with Scandinavian interiors. Historic cartography works particularly well with wood, neutral colours and simple frames.

• A conversation starter. People tend to walk closer to an old map and start searching for places they know.

• A link to family heritage. Historical Norwegian maps can be especially meaningful for people with Norwegian roots living abroad.

Norway happens to be particularly good map territory. Its long coastline, islands, fjords, mountains and scattered settlements have challenged cartographers for centuries.

The National Library of Norway's Map Centre holds an extraordinary historical collection of printed maps of Norway, Scandinavia and northern regions, with material stretching back centuries.

At Hygge by Scandinavia, we have collected maps showing very different versions of Norway. Some focus on cities. Others follow the coast or mountains. One was created for Norwegian schoolchildren, while others belong to the great European atlas tradition.

You can find them all in our Vintage Scandinavian Maps collection.

Here are eight Norwegian maps in the collection and what makes each one interesting.

Jotunheimen, 1917: for people who would rather be in the mountains

The Jotunheimen 1917 Map Print has a very different personality from a city map.

This is mountain country.

The original Kristians amt nr 36: Jotunheimen dates from 1917 and is preserved by Kartverket. It covers the Jotunheimen region at a scale of 1:250,000.

That makes it particularly appealing if your connection to Norway is tied to hiking, cabins, mountain trips or the landscape itself.

You can stand in front of it and follow the terrain with your eyes, tracing a part of Norway that still has enormous importance in Norwegian outdoor culture.

Visually, there is also plenty to explore. Old typography, mountain names, lakes and settlements give the map enough detail to keep drawing you back.

For a cabin, home office or reading corner, this is one of the most natural maps in the collection.

You can explore the historical original in Kartverket's map archive.

Bergen and Aarstad, 1914: a city just before it changed

The Bergen and Aarstad 1914 Map Print becomes even more interesting once you know the date.

The map shows Bergen and neighbouring Aarstad in 1914. The following year, Årstad was incorporated into Bergen municipality.

The map therefore captures the city at a specific moment in its development.

If you know Bergen, you can compare streets and neighbourhoods with the city you know today. If your family has roots in Bergen or Årstad, the connection can be even more personal.

This is one of the things old city maps do particularly well. Urban history becomes visible without needing pages of explanation.

The original Bergen med Aarstad i 1914 can also be viewed digitally through the National Library of Norway.

Kristiania Amt, 1870: Eastern Norway before Oslo was Oslo

The Kristiania Amt 1870 Map Print immediately places you in another Norway through its place names.

The historical map covers Kristiania, Drammen, Randsfjord, Mjøsen and Øieren.

For people familiar with today's Oslo region and Eastern Norway, much of the geography is recognisable. The names and cartographic style, however, belong unmistakably to another period.

The word Kristiania alone changes the feeling of the map.

It is especially good wall art for someone interested in Norwegian history because it rewards close inspection. You start with the broad geography and gradually notice individual towns, waterways and older spellings.

Its square format also gives it a different visual presence from many of the taller maps in the collection.

Lofoten and Bodø, 1838: Norway seen from the sea

The Lofoten and Bodø Map Print is one of the most distinctive maps in the collection because the original was created as a coastal chart.

Kartverket records the map as an 1838 representation of part of the Norwegian coast, including the southern section of Lofoten.

Once you remember its maritime purpose, you start looking at the map differently.

Islands, channels and the precise shape of the shoreline were practical information.

For anyone connected to Lofoten, Bodø, Salten or Nordland, this gives the map a particularly strong sense of place.

It also works beautifully as wall art because the fragmented coastline creates a completely different visual pattern from an ordinary national map.

For people whose idea of Norway is tied to fishing communities, northern islands and the sea, this may be the strongest choice.

Skolekart over Norge, 1885: Norway on the classroom wall

For generations, large wall maps helped Norwegian schoolchildren understand what their country looked like.

The Norway School Map Print from 1885 comes from that educational tradition.

There is something immediately nostalgic about school maps.

The National Library of Norway has written about the history of Norwegian classroom maps and the distinctive visual culture that grew around them.

This particular map is ideal if you want Norway as a whole rather than one individual region.

From a distance you see the unmistakable shape of the country. Move closer and individual places begin to appear.

It also provides a glimpse into how geography was taught before satellite imagery, online maps and GPS became part of everyday life.

For a Norwegian home abroad, a study, a cabin or a room where you want a slightly nostalgic Nordic atmosphere, this is a particularly appealing choice.

Trondheim / Trondhjem: finding your city in another time

The Trondheim Map Print shows the city under the older written name Trondhjem.

That spelling is part of its appeal.

The street plan, river and city layout invite anyone familiar with Trondheim to start searching.

Where is my street? What stood here then? How far had the city spread?

That act of searching is one of the pleasures of having a local historical map on the wall.

For someone who grew up in Trondheim, studied there or has family from Trøndelag, the connection is immediate.

The relatively clean city-map design also makes it particularly easy to use in a modern Scandinavian interior.

Bergen, 1588: when a map becomes a portrait

The Bergen Map from Civitates Orbis Terrarum feels very different from the Bergen and Aarstad map.

Here we travel back several centuries.

The Bergen view belongs to the tradition of Braun and Hogenberg's famous Civitates Orbis Terrarum, one of the great Renaissance collections of European city views.

This type of map sits somewhere between cartography and illustration.

You get mountains, buildings, harbour and water, all interpreted through late Renaissance printmaking.

For anyone interested in early Bergen history, the details are fascinating. As wall art, it is also one of the most decorative Norwegian maps in the collection.

Placed alongside the Bergen 1914 map, the two would make a particularly interesting pair: one city seen through two completely different periods of mapmaking.

 

South and Western Norway, 1636: Norway through seventeenth-century eyes

The Old Map of South Western Norway by Johannes Janssonius takes us into the world of seventeenth-century European atlases.

Dating from 1636, the map depicts the bishoprics of Stavanger, Bergen and Oslo.

This is the map for someone who really wants their historical map to look historical.

The mountain profiles, antique place names, engraved coastlines and decorative detail give it a very different character from later surveyed maps.

It works especially well in a library, office or study.

And because there is so much going on, people tend to move closer to inspect it. There is always another place name, mountain or coastline to discover.

Norwegian map prints at a glance

Map	Year	Area	Best for	Visual character
Jotunheimen	1917	Jotunheimen	Hikers, cabin owners, mountain lovers	Detailed mountain cartography
Bergen and Aarstad	1914	Bergen & Årstad	Bergen locals, family heritage	Detailed urban map
Kristiania Amt	1870	Eastern Norway	Oslo-region history	Classic 19th-century map
Lofoten and Bodø	1838	Nordland coast	Coastal and northern Norway lovers	Maritime coastal chart
Skolekart over Norge	1885	All of Norway	Norwegian heritage, nostalgia	Vintage classroom map
Trondheim / Trondhjem	Historic	Trondheim	Trondheim locals and Trøndelag roots	Clean urban cartography
Bergen – Civitates Orbis Terrarum	16th century	Bergen	Early history and decorative art	Renaissance city view
South & Western Norway	1636	Western & Southern Norway	Collectors and history lovers	Ornate engraved atlas map

Which old map of Norway should you choose?

The simplest answer is to start with the place you care about.

If mountains are part of your Norway, choose Jotunheimen.

For northern Norway and the coast, Lofoten and Bodø has the strongest maritime character.

For local identity, Bergen, Trondheim and Kristiania Amt make natural choices.

If you want the whole country, the 1885 School Map of Norway gives you Norway from north to south in one piece.

And if your interest is really historical cartography itself, the early maps of Bergen and South and Western Norwayhave the richest old-world character.

Sometimes, of course, the reason is simpler.

You choose a map because it shows somewhere you would rather be.

Norway in the wider history of Scandinavian maps

Norway also appears in several maps in our collection where Scandinavia as a whole is the subject.

The William Home Lizars map of Scandinavia presents Norway alongside Sweden and Denmark and works particularly well if your connection is Scandinavian rather than tied to one country.

The famous Carta Marina of 1539, created by Olaus Magnus, presents Scandinavia as a world filled with ships, animals, coastal communities and sea creatures. It is one of the most entertaining historical maps ever made of the Nordic region.

Nicolas Sanson's seventeenth-century map of Scandinavia, Joan Blaeu's Svecia, Dania, Et Norvegia and the Homann map of Scandinavia from 1730 offer still more ways to see Norway within the political and geographical landscape of Northern Europe.

You can explore all of these in our Vintage Scandinavian Maps collection.

For more about decorating with Nordic cartography, you can also read Why Old Maps of Scandinavia Make Scandinavian Design Feel Personal.

How to use an old map in a Scandinavian interior

Historical maps contain plenty of detail, so they rarely need a complicated setting around them.

A few approaches work particularly well:

• Hang one large map above a sofa, desk or sideboard.

• Use a light oak frame for a soft Nordic look.

• Pair two maps of the same city from different periods.

• Combine a local map with a Norwegian landscape painting.

• Use a map in a home office, hallway or reading corner where people can get close enough to explore it.

• Choose a map connected to the location of a cabin or family home.

• Build a small gallery wall around a shared region, such as Bergen, Western Norway or the Norwegian mountains.

If you want to combine historical maps with other Norwegian artwork, browse our Norwegian art prints.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are old maps of Norway good wall art?

Old maps of Norway combine visual detail with a real geographical and historical subject. They can connect a room to a hometown, family history, travel memory or favourite Norwegian landscape while bringing the texture of historical cartography into the interior.

Are historical maps of Norway accurate?

Historical maps should be understood as documents from the period when they were created rather than modern navigation tools. Surveying techniques, geographical knowledge, administrative borders and place names changed considerably over time.

Those differences are part of what makes old maps interesting today.

Where can I find original historical maps of Norway online?

Two excellent resources are Kartverket's historical map archive and the National Library of Norway's Map Centre.

Both provide access to important material from Norway's cartographic history.

Which Norwegian map makes a good gift?

A local map is usually the most personal choice. A Bergen map for someone from Bergen, Trondheim for someone with ties to Trøndelag, Jotunheimen for a hiker or Lofoten for someone connected to northern Norway immediately gives the print a story.

What is the best historical map for someone with Norwegian ancestry?

If you know where the family came from, choose the most local map available. If the specific region is unknown, a historical map showing the whole of Norway, such as the 1885 Norwegian school map, can provide a broader connection to Norwegian heritage.

Find your part of Norway

A modern map can show you how to get somewhere.

An old map shows you how that place was once understood.

Look through historical maps of Norway and the country becomes many different things: mountain landscape, dangerous coastline, growing city, schoolroom subject and part of the wider Nordic world.

That is probably why old maps remain so satisfying to live with.

There is always something else to find.

Explore the complete collection of old maps of Scandinavia and Norway, or browse our wider selection of Norwegian art prints.