Café Gallery Joséphine

You do not need a ticket for Oscarshall to visit the Queen Joséphine Art Café. The café as well as the park surrounding the summer palace are open to the public during the opening hours of Oscarshall. 

Queen Joséphine serves cakes and ice cream, coffee and tea, mineral water and apple juice. You can enjoy your purchase inside the café or bring it outdoors.

"Queen Joséphine" has seating both inside and outside. Photo: Liv Osmundsen, the Royal Court.

Began as a gallery

Between 2013 and 2016 this was an art gallery - the Queen Joséphine Gallery - with a small café attached. This changed in 2017. When Queen Sonja Art Stable was to open in the Palace Park, it was decided to close the gallery at Oscarshall and rather expand the café.

Why Queen Joséphine?

Completed in 1852, the summer palace of Oscarshall was commissioned by King Oscar I and bears his name. However, Queen Joséphine was also deeply involved in the project. There are those who claim the Queen’s involvement was so major that the small palace should have been named after her and not after the King.

A wide array of Norwegian artists and craftsmen were commissioned in connection with the interior decoration and furnishing of Oscarshall. Important artists of the time include Joachim Frich, Adolph Tidemand and Hans Gude. Both King Oscar and Queen Josephine took a great interest in art, and laid the foundation for the fine collection of older Norwegian art at the Royal Palace today.

A gallery was therefore a natural extension of a long tradition at Oscarshall.