Old Aker Church
The church was built over the former site of the Akerberg mines ("Akersberg gruve"), an ancient silver mine which was in use since the early Viking era. The mines are mentioned in the 1170 "Historia Norvegiae". The existence of these former mines must have been the inspiration for a number of local stories about the church having hidden silver treasures and even dungeons with dragons.
Old Aker Cemetery () is the cemetery of Old Aker Church. Like the church, the cemetery dates back to the Middle Ages. The cemetery is located adjacent to the newer Cemetery of Our Saviour, which was established in 1808. Several notable people are interred in the cemetery.
Oslo
Oslo was destroyed several times by fire, and after the fourteenth calamity, in 1624, Christian IV of Denmark and Norway ordered it rebuilt at a new site across the bay, near Akershus Castle and given the name "Christiania". Long before this, Christiania had started to establish its stature as a centre of commerce and culture in Norway. The part of the city built starting in 1624 is now often called "Kvadraturen" because of its orthogonal layout in regular, square blocks. The last Black Death outbreak in Oslo occurred in 1654. In 1814 Christiania once more became a real capital when the union with Denmark was dissolved.