Birkelunden (lit. 'The Birch Grove') is a

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

placed centrally in the Grünerløkka borough of Oslo, Norway. It is formed as a

rectangle In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containi ...

, more or less like a city block.

History

The area belonged to the municipality of

Aker Aker may refer to: Places * Aker, Norway, a geographic area in Oslo and a former municipality in Norway * Vestre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Nordre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Aker Br ...

until 1858, when it was incorporated into Christiania (Oslo). It was made into a park on

Thorvald Meyer Thorvald Meyer (23 September 1818 – 3 February 1909) was a Norwegian businessman and philanthropist. He was a wholesaler, retailer and shipowner as well as a land owner and developer. Biography Meyer was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norwa ...

's orders in the 1860s. Having developed the neighborhood Grünerløkka, Meyer gave the park Birkelunden to the municipality in 1882. It received major renovations between 1916 and 1920 and 1984 and 1986. In 1920 it was the intention to create a children's playground as well as a small ice rink. A music pavilion was added in 1926, and a small pool added between 1927 and 1928. The park also has several monuments, including a monument to Norwegian volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. Other major parks in the area are Olaf Ryes plass,

Sofienberg Park Sofienberg Park ( no, Sofienbergparken) is a large park in the Grünerløkka district of Oslo, Norway, covering an area of . Name The park takes its name from a country villa called Sofienberg which was located at the upper end of Nødre Dælen ...

, and

Tøyen Park Tøyen Park ( no, Tøyenparken) is a park in Oslo, Norway. It is located to the north-east of the Munch Museum and neighbours the University of Oslo Botanical Gardens. Tøyen Park is an expanse of grass-covered hills, dotted with clusters of l ...

The park is surrounded by four streets, and housing three and four storeys tall, mostly built in the 1870s and 1880s. Grünerløkka School adjacent to the park was taken into use in 1895, and on the opposite side of the park is found

Paulus Church Paulus Church (Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Paulus kirke''; tr. ''Paul's Church'' or ''St. Paul's Church'') is a church which was consecrated in 1892, located in Grünerløkka in Oslo, Norway, just opposite the Birkelunden Park. The church is ...

from 1892. Birkelunden, Paulus kirke (7

In 2006 the park, school, church and fifteen blocks in the surrounding urban area was put under strict regulations, prohibiting any visible changes to the city environment. According to the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, it was the first "preservation of a cultural hysical/nowiki> environment in a city"; earlier the cultural environments Havråtunet,

Sogndalsstrand Sogndalsstranda or Sogndalstrand is a harbor village in Sokndal municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located at the mouth of the river Sokno, about south of the municipal centre of Hauge, Rogaland, Hauge and also about southe ...

, Utstein Abbey, Neiden and

Kongsberg Silver Works Kongsberg Silver works () was a mining operation at Kongsberg in Viken county in Norway. The town of Kongsberg is the site of the Norwegian Mining Museum (). History Operating from over 80 different sites, Kongsberg silver mines constituted the ...

had been preserved.

Transport

Birkelunden has a light rail station on the

Grünerløkka–Torshov Line The Grünerløkka–Torshov ( no, Grünerløkka–Torshov-linjen) is a tramway line running between Jernbanetorget to Storo in Oslo, Norway. It is served by lines 11, 12 and 18 of the Oslo Tramway. The line serves the city-centre of Oslo, Gru ...

of the Oslo Tramway. It is served by lines 11, 12 and 18. The park is also served by line 30 of Ruter's bus network.

References

{{Coord, 59, 55, 35, N, 10, 45, 36, E, region:NO-05_type:landmark, display=title Parks in Oslo Grünerløkka