The Ancient Traveling Road

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There is an ancient traveling road in Oslo, more precisely at Stovner. Now the road just looks like any normal forest path, but history left some clues telling us that’s not the case. Far from it.

The old traveling road used to go between the cities Oslo and Trondheim which is about 500 km. The Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim (a beautiful cathedral btw) was a popular pilgrim destination in the medieval times.

In the 1600s the road got a new name by the danish king, St. Olav’s Way or the Old Kings’ Road. This road is believed to be over 1500 years old, it’s quite amazing to think about this when you’re walking on this path. All this history, right beneath your feet.

The traces of petroglyphs and cairns also proves that people lived here a long, long time ago (at least 4000 years ago). The cairns are not that easy to see anymore, but yeah, there are some rocks on the ground.

It was a wonderful road to explore, beautiful nature and the weather was perfect (that always helps). You feel very humble thinking about all the humans (and animals) that lived and walked here many, many years ago and now in 2014 you’re here too… Also the path is very easy to locate and there are information a long the way always telling you what’t to see and the history of the place.

Read more about the old traveling road here (Norwegian site)

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