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Regjeringskvartalet (the Government quarter) is a collection of buildings in the centre of Norwegian capital city Oslo housing several of the offices of the Government of Norway. The complex is around 300 m northeast of the Parliament Building.
Contents
History
In 2011 it was the site of a bomb blast - part of 2011 Norway attacks.
Several buildings in Regjeringskvartalet were heavily damaged when a car bomb exploded on 22 July 2011, resulting in 8 deaths.
Overview
Regjeringskvartalet consists of the following buildings:
The Government Administration Services, centred in Møllergata 19, provides administrative services to other Government departments. Statsbygg manages the buildings on behalf of the Norwegian state, and is responsible for running and maintaining Regjeringskvartalet.
At Teatergata 9, a new building, R6, was completed in 2012. The 16 storey building houses the Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Art
Between the late 1950s and the early 1970s, artist Pablo Picasso made sketches for his first five first monumental concrete murals to be executed on the buildings’ interiors and exteriors. The largest, The Fisherman (1970), is installed on the façade of Y-block. Norwegian artists Inger Sitter, Kai Fjell and Carl Nesjar, among others, also made works for the buildings. When the government considered whether to demolish the buildings after the 2011 attacks, the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage expressed its fears that Picasso’s murals for two of them may be destroyed.