Some might find it decidedly incommodious to be dumped on by Donald Trump as a
“shithouse country”. Not the Norwegian tourist board, which chose instead to lift the lid on
some of the nation’s most breathtaking bogs.

“Are these the world’s best shit houses?” asked Visit Norway on its website, days after the US
president vented his fury once more over failing to win the Nobel peace prize by describing
Norway as a “shithouse country” at a rally on Sunday.

“Norway makes shit houses great again!” the agency continued above pictures of some of the
country’s most striking public conveniences, adding: “These toilets are worth a visit, both when
you really have to go – and when you don’t.”

Trump delivered his tirade at a rally in Michigan days before the US mid-term elections.
“Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country, actually,” he declared, using
a term he has previously applied to Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. He said he would welcome migrants from some countries but not Norway, “because I didn’t get the Nobel prize”. This month, Trump denounced the decision to award the prize to Navi Pillay, a former international criminal court judge.

“This is an indelible stain on the country of Norway and those people that made such a
disgraceful and embarrassing decision,” he said. “I never heard of this person. The Nobel peace
prize has been forever discredited … And we will not forget, Norway.”

Visit Norway pointed out that along 18 designated scenic routes around the country, leading
architects had been given the task of transforming the humble wayside privy into an attraction
in its own right. Several have since won international architecture awards.

The agency pictured a series of designer public conveniences, many of them architecturally
striking and all offering breathtaking vistas overlooking fjords, beside rushing rivers and
foaming waterfalls, or at stunning scenic viewpoints.

They “invite you to take your time and enjoy the scenery, even if you don’t have any business
to take care of”, Visit Norway said, highlighting – among others – the toilets at the Stegastein
viewpoint in the Sognefjord region of western Norway.

This particular one, the tourist board noted with uninhibited pride, had been ranked among the
10 best public toilets in the world by DesignCurial, the online architecture, design and interiors
magazine.

Combining clean lines with the fjord’s rugged landscape, the loos are famous for their large
glass windows, which allow visitors a sweeping view from their seat while remaining invisible
from the outside.

Visit Norway also highlighted the unique, wave-shaped Ureddplassen loo on the wild coast of
Helgeland, the southernmost district of northern Norway, hailed by several international
publications as the most scenic toilet in the world.

Also featured are the solar-powered modernist bog at the Utsikten viewpoint, the “Instagram
worthy” Tungeneset loo (“looks pretty good underneath the northern lights”), and the world
famous triangular “golden toilet” on Senja island.

Jens Kjeldsen, a rhetoric professor at the University of Bergen, said that under the
circumstances, Visit Norway’s response was well judged. “It’s like the bully in kindergarten,”
he told NRK public television. “If you get too serious, the bully wins.”

Evgenia Egorova, a senior consultant at Visit Norway, told the broadcaster the response to its
social media fightback had been immense. “The world needs a little laugh,” she said. “We
thought, let’s meet them with kindness, and a little humour.”

Visit Norway said there were more stylish loos in the pipeline, including a forest-inspired
latrine using dried wood from 60 trees. “Get ready for the pit stop of your life,” it urged, before
signing off with a cheery: “Toodeloo!”

The Nobel peace prize is famously not awarded by the nation or even the government of
Norway, but by the Nobel Prize Committee, which operates independently – something Trump
“knows very well”, the foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, said. “We have reminded him of
that, in case anyone is wondering,” he said.

Toilet at Ostasteidn in Ryfylke

Credit to the Guardian 30 October 2026