In travel, like life, things don’t always go to plan.
But even when disaster strikes, there is usually a silver lining.
You just have to find it.
So while Mom was safely tucked up in a hospital bed at the Oslo University Hospital, I decided to go and find my silver lining – the Vigeland Sculpture Park.
The park, which had been on my original list of places to see, was in walking distance of the hospital. So, armed with map and camera, I left the hospital and headed out.
All it took as a short ten minute walk down Kirkeveien Street and I was there.
The Vigilend Sculpture Park is a wonderland of life-size bronze and granite sculptures depicting humans, ranging from small children to closely entwined lovers, friends, families, and elderly couples, in everyday activities such as walking and playing to holding hands and hugging.
The work of one man, Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, this park has been a favorite of locals since 1940.
In a deal with the city of Oslo, Gustav Vigeland situated his home and workshop (now the Vigeland Museum) in the park and then proceeded, over two decades, to design the entire park around his obsession with the human form.
Highlights of the park include ‘The Fountain’ a controversial sculpture of 60 individual bronze figures (children, teengages, old men, and skeleton) representing the circle of life and the highly symbolic “Monolith” consisting of 121 intertwined human figures representing human’s desire to reach out to the divine.
But it’s ‘The Angry Boy’ who draws the biggest crowds.
No one knows why he is so upset.
But everyone wants to take his photo.
(photos by Liz Lewis)
Wow… it sounds like one of those weird yet beautlful places you just have to see.