Norway bids final farewell to King Harald V with funeral attended by royalty and dignitaries

Norway will bid its final farewell to King Harald V on with a funeral attended by royalty and leaders from across Europe.

Norway will bid its final farewell to King Harald V on Wednesday with a funeral attended by royalty and leaders from across Europe and beyond, who will pay tribute to the popular monarch’s 35-year reign.

Harald, who died on Aug. 28 aged 89, was Europe’s oldest monarch and had modernized the royal house, but refused to follow in the footsteps of other aging monarchs who have abdicated in recent times. His son immediately became King Haakon VIII and last week pledged an oath of allegiance to Norway’s constitution in parliament.

On Wednesday, the coffin will be taken from the royal palace to Oslo Cathedral in a procession, followed by Haakon, other senior Norwegian royals, foreign guests and representatives of Norway’s parliament and others.

King Olav V of Norway and his son Prince Harald in London in 1963.Evening Standard / Hulton Archive via Getty Images fileAhead of the funeral, Norwegians have waited patiently to file past Harald’s coffin as it lay in state in the chapel of the royal palace in Oslo. The queue was seven hours long at one point over the weekend. Over 46,000 people visited the chapel during the week.

Large crowds are expected in the capital for the funeral. The downtown area will be closed to vehicles and electric scooters, and police have instructed people not to bring bicycles, umbrellas or sharp objects. Large screens have been set up for people to watch the ceremony.