Mangelsgården – Prinds Christian Augusts Minde

Oslo · Norway · Historic building

Behind the gate at Storgata 36 lay the "Dollhouse" — nine madhouse cells, including a special room for the 'talkative and quarrelsome'.

In the middle of Storgata hides one of Oslo's heaviest quarters: Prinds Christian Augusts Minde, known as Mangelsgården. For nearly a hundred years, until 1915, it operated as a feared forced-labour institution where the city's poor, vagrants and "work-shy" were locked away. In 1829 a madhouse — the "Dollhus" — was fitted out in the north wing with nine places, among them a dedicated room for the "talkative and quarrelsome". Capacity never sufficed; by 1834 an extra floor had to be added. Behind the listed eighteenth-century facades, people sat imprisoned for the crime of poverty, their names and fates preserved in the archives. The whole complex is now protected — a piece of well-preserved despair amid the city's pulse, where the walls remember more than the street suspects.

FAQ

Where is Mangelsgården – Prinds Christian Augusts Minde located?

Mangelsgården – Prinds Christian Augusts Minde is in Oslo, Norway.

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