- Eläintarha
Eläintarha ( _sv. Djurgården) is a large
park in centralHelsinki ,Finland . The name "eläintarha" means "zoo ".The park's location acts as a divisor between the districts of
Töölö to the west, andHakaniemi andKallio to the east. The southern half of the park includes twobay s of theBaltic Sea :Töölönlahti to the west, andEläintarhanlahti to the east. Therailroad tracks running northwards from theHelsinki Central railway station run between these bays, effectively splitting the Eläintarha park in half.At the north-western end of the park, near the district of
Laakso , there is asports arena called Eläintarhan urheilukenttä, or "Eltsu" as it is known to Helsinkians. From 1932 to 1963, the Eltsu arena hosted annualmotorbike andracing car races, known asEläintarhanajot or "Eltsunajot", but these were later cancelled as too dangerous.Contrary to the name, there has never been a zoo in Eläintarha. There are two theories for the misleading name. The more popular one is that
Henrik Borgström , who bought the park area in the middle of the 19th century, had announced plans to build a zoo there, and by the 1880s, the name Eläintarha had been established in advance, anticipating the zoo, which never materialised. The city of Helsinki bought the park from Borgström in 1877. Another theory is that the name is simply a translation from theDjurgården park inStockholm ,Sweden .The real Helsinki zoo is located on the island of
Korkeasaari .ources
* [http://lotta.yle.fi/rsweb2.nsf/sivut/viikon_kysymys_arkisto?opendocument&pageid=Content1413513300F Yle question of the week: What is the history of Eläintarha's name?]
* [http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~jmunkki/ratikka/alppila.html The Eläintarha park area at niksula.cs.hut.fi]
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