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.
Lars Backer
Backer was responsible for several notable Scandinavian works including the "Skansen" and Ekeberg restaurants in Oslo, and the first high-rise office building in the city. His Skansen restaurant, completed in 1927, was the first modernist building in Norway, earning Backer lasting fame as a pioneer of Scandinavian Functionalism.
Backer died at the age of 38 from a streptococcal infection, but several members of his firm carried on his work and made names of their own, including Frithjof Stoud Platou