Drøbak

Drøbak sits on the east shore of the Oslofjord, where the fjord is at its narrowest. The old town runs down a steep slope to the harbour, all small wooden houses, narrow streets and gardens, and the protected centre looks much as it did a hundred years ago. Out in the sound lie the two Kaholmen islands with Oscarsborg Fortress. An underwater wall on their far side keeps big ships in the eastern channel, right in front of the town.

Almost 14.000 people live here, in the main town of Frogn, and Oslo people have used it as a summer place for a long time. The name comes from Old Norse Drjúgbakki, roughly "the long, hard hill", which makes sense once you've driven down into the centre.

Local knowledge: Drøbak got its town charter in 1842, but the night that put it in the history books was 9 April 1940. A German force came up the fjord in fog and darkness to take Oslo by surprise, the heavy cruiser Blücher in front. At Oscarsborg, Colonel Birger Eriksen gave the order to fire at 04.21. Both shots from the big 28 cm guns hit, the batteries on land joined in, and two torpedoes from Nordre Kaholmen finished the job. Blücher sank at 06.22, and between 700 and 1.000 men died. The rest of the force turned back, and those hours gave the King and the government time to get out of Oslo.

Born here: Gunnar Isachsen (1868–1939) mapped large areas of unknown land in Arctic Canada on Otto Sverdrup's Fram expedition, and his Svalbard expeditions in 1909 and 1910 started regular Norwegian research there. Cyclist Tobias Halland Johannessen (born 1999) finished sixth in the Tour de France in 2025, the best result ever for a Norwegian.

Visiting: the pin points to the tourist information by the boat harbour, open all year. The Oscarsborg ferry runs every day from Sundbrygga, north of Badeparken, and in summer from Sjøtorget in the centre too. Up on the square, the big yellow wooden house is Tregaardens Julehus, a Christmas shop open all year and home to Santa's post office. In 1989 the council decided that "as far as the executive committee knows, the Norwegian Santa must have been born in Drøbak", and letters to "Julenissen, 1440 Drøbak" have come here ever since. On a rainy day, Drøbak Akvarium in the tourist office building shows fish from the fjord, or swim at Bølgen Bad. Campers can't park on Sjøtorget or stay the night in the old town, but the car parks at Seiersten and Skiphelle take them. For forest walks, Østmarka National Park is east of Oslo.

Fact sheet

• People: 13.912 in Drøbak, 16.429 in Frogn municipality
• County: Akershus
• Town since: 1842 (as a trading town)
• Typical industries: warehousing and transport services, wholesale trade, sport, leisure and amusement

Population on 1 January 2026, from Statistics Norway. Typical industries are the ones with a much bigger share of the jobs here than in Norway as a whole (Statistics Norway, 2025).