CHRISTIANIA, the capital of Norway, province of Aggerhuus, stands at the northern extremity of the Christiania fiord, on the Agger, in N. Lat. 59. 55. E. Long. 10. 49. Pop. (1845) 26,141. The city is built on an agreeable slope facing the south, and graduating into the country by means of innumerable villas intermingled with wood, and usually built in commanding situations. The entire aspect of the town and surrounding scenery is exceedingly pleasing and peculiar. The town is regularly laid out, the streets wide and straight, crossing each other at right angles, and the houses are all built of brick or stone, though few of them have any pretensions to architectural beauty. The castle of Aggerhuus, containing the regalia and national records, is picturesque situated on a bold promontory at its southern extremity, commanding at once the fiord and the greater part of the town. The ramparts are laid out in walks, and form an agreeable promenade. The principal public buildings are the new palace, the Storting or legislative hall,
cathedral, theatre, free-masons' hall, &c. The university, founded in 1811, is attended by about 800 students, and has a library of 130,000 volumes, excellent museums, astronomical and magnetical observatories, and a botanic garden. There are also a military academy and other schools, a military hospital, a lunatic and two orphan asylums, town-hall, exchange, a bank, and various literary and scientific societies. It has manufactures of woollen goods, tobacco, hardware, leather, paper, and soap, &c.; several distilleries and breweries; and an extensive trade in timber, fish, and other northern produce. The town has four suburbs, in which the houses are mostly of wood, these not being prohibited there as in the town. Christiania takes its name from Christian IV., by whom the city was founded close upon the site of the ancient city of Opslo, which, with the exception of the episcopal palace and a few houses, was entirely destroyed by fire in 1624. Opslo was founded in 1058 by King Harald Haardraade, and rose to be the third city of the kingdom. Upon the union of Norway with Denmark it became the capital of the former.