Where Will King Harald V Be Buried?

From Allan Barton – the Antiquary

King Harald V of Norway has died, aged eighty-nine, after thirty-five years on the throne. His son succeeds him as King Haakon VIII. But the question of where Harald will be buried isn't really a mystery — it was quietly settled years ago, in a government budget document.

This video traces the burial places of Norway's kings from the medieval period to the present day: Saint Olaf's shrine at Nidaros, destroyed and its location lost since 1568; the centuries when Norway's kings were buried in Denmark instead of at home; the Royal Mausoleum built at Akershus Fortress after Queen Maud's death in 1938, and the very public disagreement over whether she should have been buried at Nidaros instead; the sarcophagi of Haakon VII, Maud, Olav V and Crown Princess Märtha; and the medieval remains built into the mausoleum's walls, including a king's skull that spent two centuries in Denmark before it was finally returned.The video ends with the sarcophagus already designed for King Harald and Queen Sonja — a commission from the architects Snøhetta that has drawn some criticism in the Norwegian press. • 0:00 – King Harald V Has Died • 0:50 – Saint Olaf and the Lost Grave • 1:52 – The Kings Buried at Nidaros • 2:18 – Bergen's Lost Christ Church • 3:10 – The Capital Moves to Oslo • 3:39 – Margaret and the Union with Denmark • 5:15 – 1905: Haakon VII and Queen Maud • 6:17 – Maud's Death and the Nidaros Debate • 8:45 – Building the Royal Mausoleum • 10:59 – The Sarcophagi of Haakon, Maud, Olav and Märtha • 12:32 – The Medieval Remains in the Walls • 13:47 – King Harald's Own Burial