Frogner Park

Frogner Park
Part of Frogner Park (from the Vigeland monolith)
Map
LocationFrogner Manor, Frogner, Oslo
Nearest cityOslo
Area0.45 square kilometres (110 acres)
Establishedc. 1750 as a baroque garden of Frogner Manor
Early 20th century as a large public park

Frogner Park (Norwegian: Frognerparken) is a public park in the central West End borough of Frogner in Oslo, Norway.[1] The park is historically part of Frogner Manor and is Oslo's largest park, open to the public at all times. It includes the manor house which is the seat of Oslo Museum, the nearby Henriette Wegner Pavilion, the Vigeland installation of sculptures (Norwegian: Vigelandsanlegget) created by sculptor Gustav Vigeland, Frogner Baths, Frogner stadion, Frognerparken Café, the restaurant Herregårdskroen and the largest collection of roses in the country with 14,000 plants of 150 species. Frogner Park is the most visited tourist attraction in Norway.

Frogner Manor was historically one of the largest estates in the modern Oslo area. Both the park, the entire borough of Frogner as well as Frognerseteren derive their names from Frogner Manor. The manor house is located in the south of the park, and houses Oslo Museum, which opened there in 1909. The nearby Henriette Wegner Pavilion commemorates the philanthropist and women's rights pioneer Henriette Wegner and was moved from Blaafarveværket in 1837. Frogner Park was gradually opened as a public park from 1904 and the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition was held there. From 1924, Gustav Vigeland's sculpture installation was built in parts of Frogner Park.[2] It consists of sculptures as well as larger structures such as bridges and fountains. The installation is not a separate park, but the name of the sculptures within the larger Frogner Park. Informally the Vigeland installation is sometimes called "Vigeland Park" or "Vigeland Sculpture Park"; the director of Oslo Museum Lars Roede said "Vigeland Park" "doesn't really exist" and is "the name of the tourists," as opposed to "Oslo natives' more down-to-earth name, Frogner Park."[3]

The park of Frogner Manor was historically smaller and centered on the manor house, and was landscaped as a baroque park in the 18th century by its owner, the later general Hans Jacob Scheel. Wegner Park, a romantic landscape park, was built around 1840 by then-owners, industrialist Benjamin Wegner and Henriette Wegner. Wegner's romantic park still exists in the areas near the manor house. Large parts of the estate were sold to give room for city expansion in the 19th century, and the remaining estate was bought by Christiania municipality in 1896 and made into a public park.

Frogner Park is the largest park in the city and covers 45 hectares;[4] the sculpture installation is the world's largest sculpture park made by a single artist. Frogner Park is the most popular tourist attraction in Norway, with between 1 and 2 million visitors each year,[5] and is open to the public at all times. Frogner Park and the Vigeland installation (Norwegian: Frognerparken og Vigelandsanlegget) was protected under the Heritage Act on 13 February 2009 as the first park in Norway.[6][7]

  1. ^ "Frogner Park. Interactive Google Street View image and map". Geographic.org/streetview. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
  2. ^ Frogner Park (Visitnorway.com)
  3. ^ Einar Solvoll (2008-11-14). "Aften spør for deg". Aftenposten. Vigelandsparken finnes egentlig ikke! Vigelandsanlegget er en del av Frognerparken, som er det store restarealet av Frogner hovedgård [...] turistenes Vigelandsparken [...] Oslo-folkets mer jordnære navn, Frognerparken
  4. ^ Frognerparken (Frogner Park's friends) Archived 2010-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Om Frognerparken Archived 2012-06-22 at the Wayback Machine, Frognerparkens Venner
  6. ^ Frognerparken og Vigelandsanlegget Archived 2014-12-20 at the Wayback Machine, Kulturminnesøk
  7. ^ Miljøverndepartementet: «Frognerparken fredet» besøkt 13 February 2009