Oslo, situated on the small Akershus Peninsula at the head of Oslo Fjord, about sixty miles (ninety-seven kilometers) from the open sea, was already a village around the year 1000 with the St. Clement's Church and the cemetery .

According to Snorri's Heimskringla, the city was built in 1050 by King Harald Hardrada.

Subsequent archaeological excavations and research have established that Oslo had an urban structure as early as the end of the Viking Age.