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Tivoli Gardens
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The
oldest amusement park which
has survived intact to the present day is Tivoli
Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark.
This
world famous amusement park
opened
on August 15, 1843 and it was called "Tivoli & Vauxhall". Tivoli's
founder, Georg Carstensen (b.1812-d.1857) obtained a five-year charter
to create Tivoli by telling King Christian VIII that "when the people
are
amusing themselves, they do not think about politics".
From the
very
start,
Tivoli included a great variety of attractions: buildings in the exotic
style of an imaginary Orient: a theatre, restaurants, band stands,
cafés,
flower gardens, and mechanical amusement rides such as a merry-go-round
and a primitive scenic railway.
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After
dark, coloured lamps illuminated
the gardens. On certain evenings, specially designed fireworks could be
seen reflected in Tivoli's lake.
Composer HansChristian Lumbye
(1810-1874)
was Tivoli's musical director from 1843 to 1872. Lumbye was inspired by
Vienese waltz composers like the Strauss family (Johann Strauss I and
his
sons), and became known as the "Strauss of the North." Many of his
compositions
are specifically inspired by the gardens, including "Salute to the
Ticket
Holders of Tivoli", "Carnival Joys" and "A Festive Night at Tivoli".
The
Tivoli Symphony Orchestra still performs many of his works.
In 1944,
Nazi sympathisers
attempted to break the Danish peoples' spirit by burning many of
Tivoli's
buildings, including the concert hall, to the ground. Undaunted, the
Danes
built temporary buildings, and the park was back in operation after a
few
weeks. Today,
Tivoli is in the
very center of Copenhagen, and the gardens are surrounded by heavily
trafficked
streets.
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