The Diorama is a miniature world in
Efteling amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. The highly detailed mountainous world, or
Diorama
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...
, was designed by
Anton Pieck and opened in 1971, in honour of the 20th birthday of Efteling.
The visitors can walk around a 60 metre long show-case with mountains, little villages, castles and churches, moving trains and automobiles and flowing water. Most of the Diorama is set in day-time, but a smaller part is devoted to night-time
The landscape has been built entirely out of
styrofoam. The Diorama is the first attraction with contributions of
Ton van de Ven, the creative director of Efteling at that time. He made some sketches for it, but they weren’t used for the Diorama; years later they were used for one of the scenes in the dark-ride
Dreamflight.
Fan site about the diorama
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The attraction was completely renovated in 2007, all rail tracks were replaced, switching mechanisms for the signals are removed and there are seven small attractions from the "real efteling" where added.
Trivia
*One of the wooden bridges over the railroad tracks in the first scene has collapsed and a new wooden bridge has been built next to it. It seems to be a creative idea, but it was actually stepped on by one of the builders by accident.
*Exceptionally, Märklin
Gebr. Märklin & Cie. GmbH or Märklin (MÄRKLIN or MAERKLIN in capital letters) is a German toy company. The company was founded in 1859 and is based at Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg. Although it originally specialised in doll house accesso ...
for many years manufactured the Minex steam trains specially for Efteling.
References
{{Efteling
Scale modeling
Efteling