In the middle of Copenhagen's city center, one of Europe's most popular amusement parks is celebrating its 175th birthday. Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens first opened in 1843.
Image: DW/Tivoli Kopenhagen
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The Tivoli Gardens will be celebrating a lavish birthday party throughout 2018, with numerous events, concerts and parades. However, the highlight of the festivities will be on August 15th. At 10:45 p.m. things start to get romantic when the park is illuminated, and around midnight there will be a huge birthday firework display.
With its combination of gardens, culture, amusement rides and restaurants, Tivoli is an institution in Copenhagen and has become an integral part of the cityscape. Exotic countries and imaginative fairy tales come to life in the park, while the gardens beckon you to linger. There are also 23 rides, from the modern Star Flyer to the historic wooden roller coaster, as well as 37 restaurants and numerous stages. During the summer season - from April to September - concerts, events and firework displays take place on weekends. Yuletide highlights include the romantic magic of Tivoli's lights during during Advent, when its Christmas market takes place.
In the advent season the Tivoli becomes a sea of lights Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot
A model from the 2nd century
Tivoli is an amusement park that exudes the charm of the past. Its old-time atmosphere enchants people even after 175 years. Tivoli's founder was a Danish entrepreneur, Georg Carstensen. In times of political unrest in Europe, he was able to persuade then-31-year-old King Christian VIII to support his business idea, arguing that "when people are amusing themselves, they do not think about politics." The king granted him the former military grounds along the city wall with permission to build an amusement park and pleasure gardens there. Tivoli Gardens opened on August 15, 1843.
Nostalgic pleasure - spin a round on the swing carouselImage: picture-alliance/Photoshot
The name refers to the Italian town of Tivoli, about 30 kilometers from Rome, where the emperor Hadrian had a summer residence, the Villa Adriana, built around 120 A.D. Hadrian had miniatures recreated of the landscapes and buildings he had seen on his travels to Greece and Egypt. Even then there were music and theatre performances, and later centuries saw the addition of gardens with water features and fountains. Carstensen recognized an ingenious concept and implemented it in Copenhagen.
Walt Disney is thrilled
The retro charm of the Tivoli has many fans: Here is a vintage garden partyImage: picture-alliance/Ritzau Scanpix/T. Christensen
In the early 1950s, Walt Disney paid several visits to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. The special atmosphere provided him with inspiration for his own theme parks. He took many ideas with him before eventually opening the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in 1955. Disney was fascinated by the mixture of lush flowers, lighting, nostalgia and romance, which he wanted to incorporate into his own park.
In honor of Tivoli's 175th birthday in 2018 , Walt Disney World has provided its own float for the big anniversary parade in the Danish theme park. The parade through the park is more than 100 meters long and takes place every day except Friday until September.
Around four and a half million people flock to Tivoli every year. The most-visited amusement park in Europe is Disneyland Paris, with over 10 million guests a year, followed by Europa-Park Rust (Germany), with some five million visitors a year.
10 spectacular amusement parks in Europe
Higher, faster, crazier — Europa-Park in Rust has set a new record with 5.7 million visitors in 2019. But if you love amusement parks you are spoilt for choice all over Europe. Here are our favorites:
Image: Europapark
Europa-Park in Rust, Germany
5.7 million guests visited Europa-Park in the south of Baden-Württemberg in 2019. This means that it remains Germany's most popular amusement park. It offers more than 100 attractions in 15 European theme worlds. The latest addition: the indoor water world "Rulantica" with Scandinavian flair, which opened at the end of November 2019.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Seeger
Disneyland Paris, France
The park is known for bringing to life the fantasy characters and worlds of Disney films — first and foremost, Minnie and Mickey Mouse. Every year, some 15 million visitors stream through the castle gates. The park itself is vast. Its nearly 2,000 hectares equal about one fifth the total area of Paris!
Image: Disneyland Paris
Viennese Prater, Austria
In a green pocket of land in the middle of Vienna you can find one of the oldest amusement parks in the world, the Wurstelprater. For more than 250 years a model for many parks that followed. Over four million visitors flock to the fair's stages and rides every year. One highlight is the 65-meter-high Ferris wheel, one of Vienna's most famous landmarks.
Image: Prater Wien GmbH
Gardaland in Castelnuovo del Garda, Italy
Gardaland is a fantasy world designed in loving detail around a magic tree. This is the lair of the park mascot, the dragon Prezzemolo (English: parsley). Every year, around 2.75 million people are drawn to the park on Lake Garda to enjoy its more than forty attractions, divided into four areas: Adrenaline, Adventure, Fantasy and Show.
Image: Gardaland
PortAventura in Salou, Spain
Spain's largest amusement park, PortAventura, south of Barcelona, also has a range of areas, each with its own theme, among them Mediterrània and Polynesia. The park is highly popular with both tourists and local residents, clocking up to some 3.5 million annual visitors. In 2007, it opened one of Europe's fastest roller coasters, the Furius Baco, with a maximum speed of 135 k/h (83 mi/h).
Image: PortAventura
Zoomarine Algarve in Guia, Portugal
Most of the rolling and looping at Zoomarine in Guia, Portugal, is done by marine mammals: dolphins, seals, harbor seals and sea lions perform all kinds of stunts in a variety of shows. The park-resident parrots also take to the stage. Visiting land-bound hominids can test out aquatic habitats in the wave pool and on water slides.
Image: Zoomarine
Alton Towers in Farley, Britain
This amusement park is tucked a bit out of the way, north of Birmingham, England. Alton Towers takes its name from a ruined Gothic castle that forms its centerpiece. Inside, park-goers find the Hex ride, challenging them to attempt to break an old spell. Among the different areas is a botanical garden commanding an excellent view of the complex.
Image: Alton Towers Resort
Efteling in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands
Efteling is all about fairy tales and their denizens: trolls, elves and dragons. They inhabit over thirty attractions, including a 3D cinema, a water coaster and a fairy-tale forest. The newest is the Baron 1898 roller coaster. Its passengers become players in a story: friends of a wealthy baron who has struck gold in an old coal mine. They accompany him down into the bowels of the Earth.
Image: Efteling B.V.
Legoland in Billund, Denmark
Legoland in Billund, Denmark, is constructed of Lego blocks of every shape and color -some 60 million of them. The park was opened in 1968 just a few kilometers from the actual Lego factory as the first of currently ten Legolands around the world. This one also features rides, but the main attraction remains the miniature houses, ships and cars all made of Lego blocks.
Image: LEGOLAND
Liseberg in Gothenburg, Sweden
In the middle of Gothenburg, Sweden, is Scandinavia's biggest amusement park, Liseberg. Around three million visitors come here every year. Among the highlights are the free-fall tower AtmosFear, which drops its brave passengers 90 Meters straight down. A bit easier on the nerves is the Ferris wheel, which also treats passengers to a panoramic view of Sweden's second-largest city.
Image: picture-alliance/Robert B. Fishman, ecomedia
