The Headquaters

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THE EMBASSY

The Italian Embassy in Oslo consists of a Chancery and a Residence, both situated just behind the Royal Palace in a quiet street named Inkognitogaten. According to a folktale, the name of the road derives from the secret visits (namely “in incognito”) paid a long time ago by a royal personality to a beautiful lady who lived here. The mansion at number 5 has hosted the Ambassador’s Residence for the last seventy years while the adjoining mansion at number 7 hosts the Chancery. Both mansions are state property.

Inkognito, known from the end of 1600, was one of the many løkker, a green fenced-in space, which existed at that time in Oslo, where people could make a stroll, gather, let the children play, organise parties and meetings. The løkker were originally public and open to everyone, but the wealthiest families eventually managed to buy them and consequently acquired property rights for them.  There are places in today’s Oslo that still preserve the memory of the original løkke in their names (Grünerløkka, Tullinløkka, Ruseløkka, Rodeløkka).

The Inkognito løkke went into private ownership as early as 1697 and the first mansion built here (the one now at Parkveien 49) was built around 1700. From 1820 a large part of the property had to be given away in connection to the building of the Royal Palace (started in 1824 and finished in 1848) on the small Bellevue hill close to the Inkognito løkke. The intendant of the Palace Hans Ditlev Franciscus Linstow (1787-1851) with his architects and master carpenters created not only the Royal Palace but also the park and the surrounding mansions, the first finished around 1840.

Inkognitogaten hosts other diplomatic representations and in the near future also the Residence of the Norwegian Prime Minister following the decision of the Parliament in March 2004 to create a building complex which includes the three properties at Parkveien 45 (currently the Government’s Guest House), Riddervoldsgate 2 and Inkognitogaten 18.    


Italian Heads of Mission to Norway

 

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