On this date in 1843 The Tivoli Pleasure Gardens opened in Copenhagen, Denmark. 10 facts you might not know.
It’s the second oldest amusement park in the world. The oldest is Dyrehavsbakken in Klampenborg, also in Denmark.
It was named after gardens in Paris and London, its initial name being "Tivoli & Vauxhall". The name was taken from the Jardin de Tivoli in Paris and Vauxhall Gardens in London.
It was founded by Georg Carstensen, who talked King Christian VIII into giving him a charter to create it by telling him, "when the people are amusing themselves, they do not think about politics". In other words, “if I distract them with an amusement park, they won’t think about deposing you.” The King gave Carstensen use of roughly 15 acres (61,000 m2) of land for an annual rent. Until the 1850s the park was outside the city.
One of the attractions there is Rutschebanen, one of the oldest still operating wooden Roller Coasters in the world, which I’m guessing is fairly tame compared to the more recent addition, Dæmonen (The Demon) which features an Immelmann loop, a vertical loop, and a zero-G roll in a ride of just one minute and forty six seconds.
Tivoli Gardens’ first Ferris Wheel was a steam-powered attraction with six gondolas, debuted in 1884. The gondolas were shaped like Hot air balloons. The Ferris wheel that is there now dates back to 1943 and is the third one to stand there. It was inaugurated for Tivoli’s 100th anniversary.
The park has inspired writers and film makers, starting with Hans Christian Andersen, who visited early on and used it as inspiration for his tale The Nightingale. It has been mentioned in numerous books and used as a film location, and possibly inspired Disneyland, too. Walt Disney is known to have visited before Disneyland opened, and he echoed Carstensen’s comment that "Tivoli will never, so to speak, be finished," when he said "Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world".
Tivoli Lake was originally part of the city’s moat. It was created in 1887 when the western ramparts of Copenhagen’s fortifications were demolished.
Performing arts are also a feature, with a theatre specifically for performances of Pantomimes, a concert hall, and an open air stage. There’s also the Tivoli Youth Guard, which Carstensen established in 1844 as a new attraction. It is a marching band made up of boys (and today girls, too) aged 9-16 and became so popular that it was one of Denmark’s best music education programs for children.
During the second world war, the Nazis attacked and destroyed several of the park’s buildings including burning down the Concert Hall in 1943 and bombing parts of Rutschebanen in 1944. Repairs and renovations happened very quickly as the Danish Government thought it important for morale to get the park working again as quickly as possible.
Carstensen held the position of director for just five years. He was fired by the board for breach of contract in 1848, when he went to fight in the First Schleswig War. He later returned to Denmark with plans to open a rival theme park in Frederiksberg called the Alhambra. It opened in 1857, but Carstensen wasn’t there – he’d died of pneumonia earlier that year, aged just 44.
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