Parks And Open Spaces In Oslo
Parks and open spaces are an integral part of the landscape of Oslo, the capital and largest city of Norway. The various parks and open spaces are interconnected by paths so that the city's inhabitants can walk between them.
As the city expanded in the middle of the 19th century, areas were appropriated for parks and recreational purposes. The eastern part of the city (Østkanten) was prioritized due to congestion and industrialization. The residential and more affluent western parts of the city (Majorstuen, Frogner) have comparably fewer parks and open spaces. 95% of the city's inhabitants have a park or an open green space within 300 meters of their home.
Some of the many parks have a special place in the life and history of Oslo:
- Frogner Park with the Vigeland Sculpture Park, Norway's most visited tourist attraction.
- Eidsvolls plass and Studenterlunden along the main street Karl Johans gate.
- Slottsparken, which surrounds the Royal Palace.
- St. Hanshaugen, the first large public park outside the city center.
- Birkelunden and Olaf Ryes plass in Grünerløkka.
- Akerselva environment park, with walks around structures from early stages of Norwegian industrial development.
- Bygdøy and Ekebergsletta, large natural parks.
Read more about Parks And Open Spaces In Oslo: Landscape and Parks, Early Parks in Oslo, 1812–1865: The First Public Parks, 1865–1916: Refuge From The City, 1916–1940: An Active Public Park Policy, 1940–1945, List of Parks
Famous quotes containing the words parks and, parks, open and/or spaces:
“Perhaps our own woods and fields,—in the best wooded towns, where we need not quarrel about the huckleberries,—with the primitive swamps scattered here and there in their midst, but not prevailing over them, are the perfection of parks and groves, gardens, arbors, paths, vistas, and landscapes. They are the natural consequence of what art and refinement we as a people have.... Or, I would rather say, such were our groves twenty years ago.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travelers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women’s chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“Deep down, the US, with its space, its technological refinement, its bluff good conscience, even in those spaces which it opens up for simulation, is the only remaining primitive society.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)