Parks To Visit When On A Norway Holiday

Among the many tourist attractions in Norway, their parks in Oslo stand out, with its rich history and lush greeneries. One of the most famous, if not the most famous, is the Vigeland Park. With 80 acres of land, the park is the largest in the city. But this is not what makes the park so special. Spread across the huge park is more than 212 sculptures made of bronze and granite. All the sculptures were created by famous Norwegian artist and sculptor Gustav Vigeland, hence the name of the park.

Vigeland Park is divided into several different parts. The first section is the Main Gate, which is made of granite and wrought iron. There are two gate houses on the sides that have weather vanes on their copper colored roofs. The gate was built in 1926. The next section is the Bridge, which houses 58 of the sculptures in the park. The bridge is about 100 meters long, connecting the park entrance to the Fountain. One of the notable sculptures in the Bridge is the Sinnataggen or “Angry Boy”. Before when the park was first offered for public viewing, the Bridge was the first section to be opened.

The next section is the Children’s Playground. It has a pond where visitors can watch ducks and geese frolic. Despite the name, this is actually not a playground for visitors but an area in the park where the sculptures depict children in various acts of playing. There are eight of them in the perimeter of the Playground. At the center, there lies a column with a fetus mounted on it.

The fountain is situated right after the bridge. Its centerpiece is, well, you guessed it “The Fountain” which was created originally for the Parliament. It is made of bronze with about 60 reliefs surrounding it. It depicts children and skeletons in the arms of big trees. This may seem morbid but Vigeland actually meant it as some sort of cycle: that death comes from a new life. Aside from the centerpiece, the ground where the fountain is, is inlaid with black and white granite.

The Monolith Plateau is the next section in the Vigeland Park. This section consists of a platform with a lot of stairs. It houses the Monolith totem where there are about 36 figures.

The Monolith, on the other hand, is the highest point in the entire park. Thus, it is the most popular. It is believed that the gigantic totem was made from giant piece of stone that Vigeland himself modeled out of clay. It reportedly took the Norwegian artist 10 months to finish the design of the totem. This is just the design process and not the actual sculpting process. It took about 12 years before a team of carvers were able to finish the design.

At the end of the park is the Wheel of Life, which is a wreath that has four people on it and a baby. The artwork symbolizes forever. In actuality, the whole park represents man’s journey, from child to old age, right to the grave.