Frogner stadion
Oslo, Norway
Formerly: Gamle Frogner stadion
Frogner Stadion sits on a site that has changed shape with the city itself. The ground opened at Middelthuns gate 26 in 1914 after the original venue was pulled down to make room for the Jubilee Exhibition.
What sets the place apart is its dual life across the seasons. The surface is artificial turf for football and American football, but underneath it lies an artificial ice rink that has hosted speed skating since the early twentieth century. The Oslo Skøiteklub, founded in 1864, still runs a museum under the stands, a quiet archive of the sport’s history.
The stadium has hosted matches that mattered to the country. Norway played its first home international there in 1910, losing to Sweden, and claimed its first home victory against Denmark eight years later. The speed skating championships held here in the twenties and thirties set records that still stand. Today, Frigg Oslo FK still plays on the turf, and the statues of Oscar Mathisen and Sonja Henie outside mark the ground’s long association with winter sport.