During the weekend of week 17, two friends and I went on a short trip to a vacation home, in Northern Zealand (the northern part of the island on which the Danish capital lies). Unfortunately, I was rather ill during this short trip, so we never managed to walk larger distances (the area has a wonderful woodland, with lots of wild nature and also some historic buildings in the woodland as well, so it was a great shame that my condition was as it was). But despite my illness, there was this abandoned amusement park close to where we stayed, which we simply had to experience.
The amusement park, once a bustling attraction for the whole family, with vast lands for everything from gigantic playgrounds to gokart circuits and rollercoasters to petting zoos. But with the economic crisis of 2008, the amusement park was declared bankrupt, and has remained abandoned since. Of course, being abandoned, it has during this three year period been vandalized and plundered for all material remains. But more interesting from the architectural point of view, has for me been to study how the buildings slowly have become subject to decay, and how nature has slowly started taking over the abandoned area. Unfortunately for my study, nature's impact on the abandoned park, hadn't been as visual as I had expected, but still, I documented as much of it as possible from what we saw.
A good example was the gokart center, with a facade on which vegetation had started growing naturally. Despite somewhat stable asphalt on the circuit, minor weeds were also beginning to appear on the track. All wooden structures were furthermore weakened and clearly affected by the lack of maintenance, such as the wood not being polished. It was interesting to see how much damage the wooden structures in the amusement park had suffered due to this.
Besides the wooden structures, it was also interesting to see the impact on the playground areas such as the one above. Here, nature's impact on the park is more clear to see. During my childhood in Copenhagen, I remember once being in this park, and this playground area was really well maintained, with freshly cut grass, small artificial ponds and such. This I remember to have been a little pond you had to cross, now all dried up and vegetated to the point at which it is barely passable.
Close to this playground area, was a giant "Viking hall" building - Built in a style that imitates traditional Nordic architecture from the Viking era. This hall must have been some sort of a cafeteria or such, but as the photo shows, what seem to have been the kitchen quarters, are here completely destroyed, for the lack of a better word. The interesting thing about this structure, is that unlike the others, the wooden construction seemed surprisingly strong and well-maintained. I believe this could be due to the use of a stronger type of wood, or rather one that fits better with the local weather conditions (the wood was indeed different from the rest of the structures in the park).
And now to the more eiree part of our tour. There was an abandoned house with just about everything left in it, such as furniture, clothes, and all sorts of household items (it seemed that there had been more items, but these have no doubt been plundered). We wondered why all these items were still there, as if the owners (most likely the owner of the park lived there) had packed a few bags and escaped the place in a hurry. Either way, it was in here that the work of decay had perhaps been the most visual. The picture above is of the livingroom in the house - I believe it speaks for itself.
Close to this house, was a building next to the main entrance, which seemed to have been like a complex with a restaurant, some offices and a gift shop. As you can see, the entrance to the restaurant now looks like something from a horror flick. The pictures here may not present the more stereotypical kind of abandoned amusement park, but considering that such places are generally very very rare in Denmark, it was a great experience for me to witness the effects of decay, and the change of architecture after it. At our point of exit, we were questioned by two security guards (who were surprisingly friendly!), who also told us more about the place. As it was clearly visible, it had been during several occasions been vandalized by local hooligans, and it had also been plundered by groups og gypsies. Furthermore, the place was to be torn down the following week (which means it is torn down as I write!) - Which means that my two friends and I are very likely the last people to ever take photos of the place!
- Andy Minchev
