Trondheim katedralskole is a grand, long, red-brick building with a slate roof and rows of tall white windows stretching across the facade-look directly ahead for the stately entrance set between bare trees on the street.
Now, imagine you’re standing in front of one of Norway’s oldest-and honestly, most legendary-schools, Trondheim katedralskole, or as the locals like to call it, “Katta.” This place has more stories than a library at midnight-so let’s peel back the curtain and take a walk through time together.
Long before Netflix marathons and electric scooters, Katta’s history was already underway, stretching all the way back to the Middle Ages. Imagine a time when knights and bishops roamed the city, and learning wasn’t just a click away. This very school was shaped not only by priests in long robes, but also by fire, plagues, and debates so long you’d wish for a snooze button. Founded somewhere around the visit of Cardinal Nicolas Breakspear in 1151, no one can quite agree on the exact birthday-hence, the nearly Olympic-level celebration schedule: 700, 800, even 950-year anniversaries! If only we all got that many birthdays.
The building you see now, the proud Harsdorff building, has watched over Trondheim since 1786, making it older than Napoleon’s best hat. It was designed by Caspar Fredrik Harsdorff, one of Copenhagen’s top architects, and built with funds from Thomas Angell’s foundations-talk about an early alumni donation. Take a look at those grand windows and disciplined symmetry; this is the country’s first school built with a “central corridor.” And if you had superhero vision, you could peer inside and spot the two marble reliefs by Bertel Thorvaldsen in the upstairs hall.
Katta has bounced around five locations before landing here. The 1920s and 30s brought expansions by Carl J. Moe, while the 1960s added a new wing towards Erling Skakkes gate, courtesy of Knut Bergersen. Oh, and let’s not forget the extensive renovations a few years ago-120 million NOK to freshen up classrooms, fix the ventilation, and even install a lift. Fancy, right?
Modern Katta is a buzzing beehive, offering all sorts of study programs-from classics like general academics to music, dance, drama, and media and communication. It’s the only school in Trondheim where Latin isn’t dead, but actually on the schedule as an elective. And if that's not enough, there’s an International Baccalaureate department-and rumor has it you can even jet off for a study year in Norfolk, England.
Money sometimes literally falls from the ceiling here in the form of old legacies and scholarships: for women in English, for theology students, and even for students down on their luck. No wonder the King himself (yep, Harald V) doles out a special honorary prize here-no other school in Norway can say that.
But what about the people who walked these halls? Picture it: kings, poets, war heroes, authors-even some modern celebrities-all learning, daydreaming, scribbling Latin verbs, or maybe sneaking out during lunch.
So whenever you read the motto “per ardua ad astra”-through adversity to the stars-just know, at Katta, they really mean it. Who knows, maybe you’ll catch a star-in-the-making coming out that big green door as you stand here today.
Fascinated by the history, school today or the famous former students? Let's chat about it
