Norway officially reopened its renovated government headquarters in Oslo on Monday, April 14th—nearly 15 years after the complex was severely damaged in the terror attacks of 2011.
On July 22nd, 2011 Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb near the government district, killing eight people. He then carried out a mass shooting at a youth camp on the island of Utøya, where 69 people, most of them teenagers, were killed.
Speaking at the reopening ceremony, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre declared
in Norwegian history, we talk about the post-war reconstruction; today we mark the rebuilding after terror, which says a great deal about the vulnerability of the modern society we live in.
The government complex suffered extensive damage in the attack, leaving several buildings deemed unusable. Reconstruction efforts began in 2021, with total costs estimated at over 50 billion Norwegian kroner (approximately €4.5 billion).
On Monday, around 2,200 employees from six ministries began moving into the new facilities. Once fully operational, the complex is expected to house approximately 4,100 government workers. Breivik was sentenced in 2012 to 21 years in prison, a term that can be extended indefinitely if he is still considered a threat to society.
