Ekeberg Sculpture Park- A Walk in the Woods

Sunday September 24 was another mainly sunny day with a high of 15C.  We decided to have a coffee before picking up some provisions for a few dinners at the Mathellan Food Hall.  We first stopped at W.B. Samson, a very nice bakery, to pick up a baguette. They were already out of their kanelbolle (cinnamon buns), apparently one of the best in the city.

Outside the bakery on a sunny day

Other Norwegian treats- chocolate bolle on the right

Great sign outside the bakery!!

We then headed up the street to Supreme Roastworks for a coffee. They have operated a roaster since 2008 and in 2013 opened their first retail space in Grünerløkka (our 'hood and about a 10 minute walk from our apartment).   Excellent coffee and we also had a very good kanelbolle.

Outside Supreme roast works

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Front area- roastery in back

We then crossed the Akerselva River to the Food Hall.

Walking along the river is so nice

After buying some provisions, we decided to check out a street behind the food hall named Telthusbakken.  It is a steep street of colourful wooden houses with a very nice view.  Lots of Osloites like to walk here too.

Walking up the street

Coming back down--- lovely gardens on the right

Signage about the street- established 1915

We crossed back over the river and went back to the apartment to drop off our food purchases.

Passing a great playground- lots of people out on a Sunday.  
Apartment building located in an old silo beside the playground

Just as we were getting to the door to our apartment building, we both noticed for the first time the three stolpersteine (stumbling stones) in front of the building.  We have come across theses memorials to victims of the Nazis (Jews, Roma and others) in many European cities.  This project was initiated by a German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992 to commemorate individuals at their last place of residency before they fell victim to the Nazis.  The first stone was placed in Cologne in 1994.  As of May 2023, 100,000 stolpersteine have been installed in 20 different countries.  Demnig installs them by hand and travels for most of the year.  Since 2005, he has partnered with one engraver who does all the engraving by hand. They are 10 cm concrete cubes bearing a brass place with the name and life dates of the victim.  Permission must be given by local authorities and attempts are made to contact living relatives before a stone is placed.  There is a detailed process for their installation.

There are around 400 of these stones placed in Oslo.  In 1942, there were an estimated 2,173 Jews living in Norway.  At least 775 were arrested, detained and or/ deported.  742 were murdered in the camps.  Only about 28-34 of those deported to the camps survived.  Two thirds of the Norwegian Jews escaped by fleeing Norway.  About 900 were smuggled out of the country by the Norwegian resistance, mostly to Sweden and some to the UK.  About 800 Norwegian Jews who fled to Sweden returned after the war.  

Just outside of our apartment building (three stolpersteine)

The Watchman Family (father, mother and son all deported to Auschwitz in 1942 and murdered there)

A fascinating bit of history, which we literally stumbled onto in front of our apartment building.   

We took the tram to the Central Train Station and then were told to take a bus to our destination the Ekebergparken (Ekeberg Sculpture Park) as the usual tram was not running due to track work.

Another great playground near the Train Station

The bus left us at the bottom of a hill which we walked up to reach the Park. Ekebergparken is a public sculpture and cultural heritage park with wonderful views over the city and the fiords.  It  is located in the beautiful green hills overlooking the Opera, Bjørvika and Oslo's East side.  

The park has one of Euopre's finest and richest collection of sculptures.  The art collection contains works by leading contemporary artists and classical sculptures from the late 19th century.  Many of the artworks are site-specific.  The sculpture park opened in 2013 and gets new artwork every year.  There are presently 45 works in the Park.  The park is owned by the City of Oslo and the sculptures are owned by the  C Loudens Ringnes Foundation, established by the art collector Christian Ringnes (b. 1954) .  The park is located in a wooded area of 25.5 acres (10 hectares).

Map of Sculpture Park 

There is a visitor's centre which has a display of the history of the Park.  The area was first settled 10,000 years ago and there have been artefacts from this time discovered in the park.  In 1889, the Ekeberg escarpment was bought by the municipal authority and made into a park.  There were clear social and health political motivations behind the purchase.  The aim was to "provide a beautiful forested park area with fresh air to which the working class could escape from the hurly burly of the city and its polluting factories".   The labour movement in Christiania (as Oslo was then called) was the prime mover in securing Ekeberg as a public recreation area.  Ekeberg Park is "the first example of the Norwegian authorities regarding it as socio-politically important to provide public parks for the population".

We commenced our walk of the very hilly but beautiful park with a sculpture map in hand.  

Salvador Dali, Venus de Milo Aux Tiroirs, 1964 (near the Visitors' Centre)

Pierre Auguste Renoir, Venus Victoria, 1914-1916

Guy Buseyne, Reflections, 2006

Matt Johnson, Levitating Woman, 2012

Richard Hudson, Marilyn Monroe, 2002

View of the harbour

Islands in the Oslo Fjord 

We passed the historic Ekeberg Restaurant.  In 1916, the first restaurant in the Park opened and in 1927 work started on a new restaurant designed by architect Lars Backer.  It was completed in 1929.  During WWII, the restaurant was commanded by the Nazis.  In 1997, the restaurant was closed and fell into disrepair. After an extensive renovation, Ekeberg Restaurant reopened in 2005, and today is one of the finest examples of functionalist architecture in Norway.

Signage

One side of the restaurant (taken on our way out of the Park)

Knut Steen, Drømmersken, 1992

Jaume Plensa, Chloé, 2019 (one of his pieces is on Adelaide Street in Toronto)

Fabulous view from a water feature

Niki de Saint Phalle, L'oiseau Amoureux Fontaine, 1993.  

The water in the fountain started just as we were a few metres away from the sculpture.  The bird is taking a bath.

Ann-Sofi Sidén, Fideicommissum, 2000

Fernando Botero, Reclining Woman, 2003.
The Colombian artist recently passed away on September 15, 2023 (aged 91)

Lynn Chadwick, Ace of Diamonds, 2004

Our very favourite sculpture was by Louise Bourgeois, entitled The Couple, 2003.  One first noticed the legs of the bodies suspended in the air.  As one got closer, the full sculpture emerged.  This particular installation was in a large field.

Approaching The Couple

The full suspended sculpture

Allan with Tori Wrånes, Traveler, 2018

The "Ekeberg steps" were built in the same area as part of the German memorial cemetery established by the Nazis in May 1940.  The cemetery consisted of a series of monumental steps which joined flat terraces decorated with swastikas and the German eagle.  In 1952, the Oslo Municipal Authority closed the cemetery and moved the graves to a German war cemetery in Alfaset (another part of Oslo).   Today, there are only the remains of the steps in a modern form designed to reflect the dark days of the Nazi occupation.

Cemetery during the War

The steps today

Sean Henry, Walking Woman, 2010

Walking with the Walking Woman

Auguste Rodin, Eva, 1881

It was a wonderful afternoon.  Oslo has an amazing amount of green space and the Osloites really take advantage of it.  When we got slightly lost looking for a particular statue, we asked for directions from a woman who lived very near the park.  She knew where every statue was located and comes to the park very often (she treats it like her backyard).  She was taking a visiting sister from Spain on a tour of her favourites.

We took the tram back to the Central Train Station and walked back to the apartment.

Bridge leading to the bottom end of our street

Our last stop before we headed back to the apartment for dinner, was a stop at a neighbourhood wine bar called Territoriet.  It had a wine list with more than 400 wines by the glass.  We had a glass of a lovely Sicilian red.  Clearly people seemed to know each other (lots of regulars) and the place filled up with folks when we were there.

The bar part

Carefully pouring our glasses of wine

Another selfie, post wine.

We headed back to the apartment and Allan made a delicious fish meal.  We tracked the last four innings of the Blue Jays game.  A much better outcome than Saturday.