Norway’s historic and precious Viking ships began a final voyage of sorts this week. The 1,200-year-old vessels are slowly and carefully being moved from their old display space at the Viking Ships Museum in Oslo, into an expanded and adjacent exhibition hall at what will become The Museum of the Viking Age.

The Oseberg ship, known for its graceful lines, is shown here leaving its berth for the past 99 years on Wednesday. It took a long, full day to  move the vessel just 100 meters into new exhibition area built adjacent to the old. PHOTO: Vikingtidsmuseet/University of Oslo

The three ships, arguably the country’s most cherished cultural treasures, have spent the last 99 years at the Viking Ships Museum on Oslo’s Bygdøy peninsula, after being found buried near Tønsberg and excavated in the early 1900s.

The most famous of them, called the Oseberg ship, was largely intact and later renovated at the Historic Museum in Oslo before literally being rolled through the streets of the Norwegian capital and out to the then-newly built museum (called Vikingshipshuset at the time,literally The Viking Ships House) at Bygdøy in 1926.

The Oseberg Viking ship, joined by the two other Gokstad and Tune ships, quickly became a major tourist attraction. By the early 2000s, the museum was way over capacity, considered old-fashioned and the vessels themselves were showing clear signs of wear and tear.

After years of political debate, and concerns over whether the vessels would survive a major move to another location, a decision was made in 2011 to renovate and expand the existing museum. An actual museum plan came in 2014, followed by more political debate over funding that went on for years. The old museum, meanwhile, closed in 2021 and still won’t reopen until sometime in 2027, but at least the complicated ship movements are now underway.

This shows how the Oseberg ship was moved in a specially built steel rig that was hoisted and rolled via an overhead track system, one centimeter at a time. PHOTO: Vikingtidsmuseet/University of Oslo

Since the Viking ships are extremely fragile, the actual move demands equally extreme precision. A specially-built steel rig attached to a crane rail mounted in the ceiling was built around the Oseberg ship. It was hoisted off the floor and rolled at a speed of just 25 centimeters a minute, until the process finally ended Wednesday night after 12 hours on the move.

The relief among all involved was broadcast live on national TV, with the new director of the new museum, Aud Tønnessen,  saying that it was all “quite moving (literally) to think that it (the Oseberg ship) is out on its last voyage.” It took 10 years of planning, marred by various funding disruptions and even a pandemic.

Millions of visitors to the old Viking Ships Museum have stood on the small balconies seen at the rear of this photo to study the Oseberg ship. Here it can be seen after leaving its longtime “berth” inside the old museum’s main exhibition hall. PHOTO: Vikingtidsmuseet/University of Oslo
The 1,200-year-old vessel was well secured as it was moved into its new space at what will be called the Museum of the Viking Age, due to open in 2027. PHOTO: Vikingtidsmuseet/University of Oslo
The Oseberg Viking ship on its way into its new exhibition hall in a new wing of the expanded museum. PHOTO: Vikingtidsmuseet/University of Oslo
The Oseberg Viking ship, still penned-in but now in place in its new exhibition hall that will open in 2027. As this photos shows, there will be much more room for visitors to see the world’s only intact, authentic Viking ship, also from viewing platforms above the vessel. PHOTO: Statsbygg

The two other Viking ships will also be moved, with the Gokstad ship set to roll by November and the Tune ship at the end of May next year. A precious and intricately carved sled found during the ship excavations will also be in its new place by that time, before the process of moving around 5,000 other Viking-era items into the new museum begins. Many are currently on display at the University of Oslo’s Historic Museum in the downtown area.

The entire process is costing an estimated NOK 550 million (USD 55 million). “We have prepared us well but there has been and is a certain level of tension, as we ponder all the various outcomes,” David Hauer, chief conservationist for Norway’s greatest cultural treasures, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). “But this is what it takes to move a Viking ship.”

NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund