Berzelii Park

Berzelii Park is a small park in central Stockholm, Sweden, located next to Nybroplan and Norrmalmstorg. The park was opened in 1853 and is named after the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, whose statue stands in the middle of the park. There are also other monuments in and around the park, including art by Carl Milles and a humorous statue of Hans Alfredsson sticking his head out of the sewer.

Berzelii Park is also the location of the restaurant Berns Salonger.

History

19th century

The entire area surrounding the present park was part of the Nybroviken bay until the mid-19th century. In the mid-1830s a new bridge across the bay was planned for the 25th anniversary of King Charles XIV. On the request of the king, the part of the bay inside the bridge was replaced by landfill installation, which transformed the bridge to more of a quay. The old bridge, "Ladugårdslandsbron", was demolished in 1845 but the new bridge wasn't opened until 1848 due to technical problems caused by the load from the landfill. One of the cast iron railings from the bridge is still found in the present park.Järbe, pp 39-43.]

The work on establishing the park was begun in 1852 under the leadership of Knut Malte Forsberg who had it completed the following year. The Academy of Sciences initiated the funding for a statue of Berzelius, commissioning artist Carl Gustaf Qvarnström for the work. He went to Münich to model the statue and had Ferdinand Von Miller cast it in bronze. As the park remained to fragile to receive a large crowd, the statue was secretly inaugurated in the middle of the night in 1858. It became the first public statue of a "commoner" to be produced in full figure. Apparently the park failed to develop as intended as a report published in 1890 described its lawns as "consisting mostly of dandelions" and the raised area surrounding the statue as a "sand hill". However, the situation quickly improved as Afred Medin became city gardener, and the same critic later wrote enthusiastically about the park.

20th century

In the hot summer of 1951, Berzelii Park was the scene of the "Berzelii Riots", when bored - and usually drunk - young people used to gather in the park night after night. The continuing riots escalated and reached their peak on the night of August 26, when there was a stand off between 3000 young people and policemen called in from five different cites, including military police.fact|date=May 2008

See also

* Geography of Stockholm

Notes

References

* cite book
title = Dofternas torg - Hur Packartorget blev Norrmalmstorg
first = Bengt | last = Järbe
publisher = Byggförlaget | year = 1995
isbn = 91 7988 100 9 | language = Swedish