Vennelystparken Ca 1900 on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Vennelystparken is the oldest park in the city of
In 1849, permission was given to build a small theatre in the park, initiating a century long cultural high-point in the history of the park. The theatre hosted innumerable parties, social events, concerts, song performances and became the usual venue for touring theatre groups, vaudeville and circuses. Fireworks and hot air balloon shows, were also popular and in 1880 the first summer revue was held, a tradition that lasted 60 years. In the fall of 1896, a " Sami-caravane" consisting of two Sami families, eight reindeer and their dogs, became an exhibition and attraction. The theatre was decorated in a suitably winterish landscape and entrants were charged a fee to see performances. The Sami dogs multiplied during their stay, and became high fashion in Aarhus at the time.
In 1897, a new wooden venue was built, designed by Thorvald Jørgensen in National Romantic style, with a characteristic 35m tall lookout tower. It burned in 1908 but the year after a new theatre was built, supplemented by an outdoor scene in 1910. The upper social classes started frequenting the park at this time and it was a fashionable and popular location through the 1920s and 1930s. In January 1945, in the latter months of the
File:Vennelystparken (maj).jpg
File:Vennelystparken (maj) 03.jpg
File:Vennelystparken (maj) 04.jpg
File:Vennelystparken (egetræ).jpg
File:Vennelystparken (efterår) 01.jpg
File:Vennelystparken 2.jpg
File:Vennelystparken 1.jpg
File:Dale's Café.jpg
Aarhus
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...
, constructed in the years 1824 to 1830 between the streets ''Vennelyst Boulevard'' and ''Nørrebrogade''. Through the 19th century up to the Second World War the park was a social focal point in Aarhus hosting revues, circusses, plays and concerts in changing venues. The park is now part of the Aarhus University campus in Midtbyen. The park no longer has any venues but is frequently used for open-air concerts and protests and functions as the local park of the neighborhood ''Øgadekvarteret''.
Vennelystparken contains large undulating, grassy areas with a lake and stream cutting through, and is characterized by beech
Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...
and chestnut
The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.
The unrelat ...
trees.
History
The area was originally a rough and muddy field used for grazing cattle, but in 1824Julius Høegh-Guldberg
Julius Høgh-Guldberg (4 April 1779 – November 1861) was a Danish officer, commissioner and politician. He had a long and prominent military career until he retired in 1832 at the rank of colonel. He settled in Aarhus where he became a member ...
rented the area of Aarhus Municipality for a period of 25 years, with the intention of creating a new commercial recreational area. In 1830, the new park opened under the name ''Vennelystparken'' after extensive landscaping. The park was a fenced, guarded and required a fee for entry, but still became a popular recreational destination for the Aarhus citizens.
In 1849, permission was given to build a small theatre in the park, initiating a century long cultural high-point in the history of the park. The theatre hosted innumerable parties, social events, concerts, song performances and became the usual venue for touring theatre groups, vaudeville and circuses. Fireworks and hot air balloon shows, were also popular and in 1880 the first summer revue was held, a tradition that lasted 60 years. In the fall of 1896, a " Sami-caravane" consisting of two Sami families, eight reindeer and their dogs, became an exhibition and attraction. The theatre was decorated in a suitably winterish landscape and entrants were charged a fee to see performances. The Sami dogs multiplied during their stay, and became high fashion in Aarhus at the time.
In 1897, a new wooden venue was built, designed by Thorvald Jørgensen in National Romantic style, with a characteristic 35m tall lookout tower. It burned in 1908 but the year after a new theatre was built, supplemented by an outdoor scene in 1910. The upper social classes started frequenting the park at this time and it was a fashionable and popular location through the 1920s and 1930s. In January 1945, in the latter months of the German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
, the ''Vennelyst Theatre'' was bombed during a schalburgtage
Schalburgtage was the popular name for the retaliation which Germans and their Danish collaborators carried out as revenge for resistance activity in the last part of the occupation of Denmark between 1944 and 1945. The word is partially a refere ...
terror attack. It was never rebuilt and the park today remains open-air.
In 1957, Aarhus University expanded its campus to include Vennelystparken. Architect C. F. Møller designed a building for education in Journalism and many other buildings has followed, including education buildings for nurses and dentists, student housing and an arts museum. In 1973 the journalist education moved to the Danish School of Media and Journalism and in 2002, the arts museum moved out and has exhibited in the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum since 2004. Today all the buildings are owned and administered by Aarhus University and used for education, research or housing.
Gallery
See also
* Aarhus University ParkReferences
;Publications * {{Aarhus Parks in Aarhus