Copenhagen's Enchanting Tivoli Gardens

Copyright Stig Nygaard

Copenhagen has built a number of remarkable new attractions over the last several years: Daniel Libeskind’s starkly cubist Jewish Museum just south of Christiansborg Palace; Zaha Hadid’s sinuous extension of the Ordrupgaard art museum; Norman Foster’s grand Elephant House at the Copenhagen Zoo. But visitors staying at the Harper-recommended Hotel Nimb will have the pleasure of experiencing the city’s oldest and finest wonder, Tivoli Gardens.

The world's most venerable amusement park (and the inspiration for a certain well-known venue in Anaheim, California) opened in 1843 as “Tivoli and Vauxhall.” Its founder, Georg Carstensen, was a gregarious former military man whose travels in the Far East resulted in many of the park's whimsical, Chinese-style buildings. The grand “pleasure gardens” of Europe - namely London’s Vauxhall and Paris’ Jardin de Tivoli - were equally influential, as were the writings of his good friend, Hans Christian Andersen. Carstensen's original bid for the project, submitted to King Christian VIII, included a number of straightforward attractions (restaurant, concert pavilion, theater, merry-go-round, etc.), as well as some more idiosyncratic ventures, including a “Grand Bazaar” and a “Cosmorama,” a scrolling panoramic painting of the world. He was granted 15 acres well outside the ramparts of the city. A project that began with a five-year license became the most storied theme park in the world. While today's Tivoli Gardens is no stranger to looping thrill rides and rock concerts, several classic attractions possess an abiding charm. The original wooden roller coaster, a rattling leviathan built in 1914, continues to thrill the crowds. The Pantomime Theatre, with its famous peacock-tail curtain and grand Oriental flourishes, still hosts classic Italian commedia dell’arte performances. All of the Tivoli Boys Guard parades begin and end in front of the stately ramparts of Hans Christian Andersen Castle. And then there’s the Hotel Nimb. The fanciful Moorish structure is actually the third version of Carstensen’s original “Grand Bazaar,” which immediately became a huge draw after the Gardens opened, housing the only restaurant with hot food and a bustling market full of exotic curios. The restaurant became so popular that minders had to be hired to keep onlookers from disturbing the patrons. The hotel gets its name from the Nimbs, a family of well-known restaurateurs who began managing the dining operations of the Bazaar building soon after its second reconstruction in 1909. After many years of neglect, the Bazaar opened as a hotel in May 2008, restoring the building to its rightful role as the heart and soul of Tivoli Gardens. Strolling the Gardens one morning after a night at the hotel, we found the crowds exceptionally sweet and well-mannered, and the whole place spoke of a time when fantasy meant The Ugly Duckling instead of a video game. In a restive world, this winsomeness was immensely appealing - even cause for a little hope.