This monumental building dominates the harbour area of Oslo. The building was designed by Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Paulsson and took over 20 years to build. It contains a number of murals and wood-carvings of exceptional quality, which were begun in the 1930s and, interrupted by the Second World War, only finished in the 1950s.

Around the Rådhus are also a number of fine statues and the architectural details of the building itself are solid examples of 20th-century Norwegian public sculpture on a grand scale. The sculptures and images depict a range of subjects from Norwegian mythology through to modern events such as the resistance to the Nazi occupation.