Friday 2 October 2015

Queen's childhood home to be moved to museum

The news that the villa in which the Queen grew up was to be demolished caused some consternation a while ago, but yesterday it became known that the house has now been saved and will be moved to the open air museum Maihaugen at Lillehammer.
Until her marriage to the then Crown Prince Harald in 1968, Sonja Haraldsen, as she then was, lived in a functionalist villa in Tuengen allé 1B at Vinderen in Oslo, which had been built in 1935, two years before her birth. After her mother Dagny Haraldsen moved to an apartment at Majorstua, the villa was taken over by Dag Swanstrøm, son of the Queen's late sister Gry Henriksen, but because of reconstruction of the area it had now been decided to demolish the house.
However, Maihaugen has since 1993 collected houses in order to documents Norwegian homes of the twentieth century, but has until now lacked houses from the 1930s and 1960s. The Queen's childhood home will thus fill a gap in the museum's collection while preserving a house that is of more than usual historical interest.
The villa has been modernised and altered through the years, but in connection with its move to Maihaugen later additions will be removed and the house restored to its original appearance. The Queen has agreed to assist in this work by making available items, documentation and memories.

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