Cirkus Verdensteater (Oslo)

By Dominique Jando

From 1890 to 1935, Oslo, the capital of Norway, housed a magnificent circus building known as the Cirkus Verdensteater ("Circus World Theater"). It was located at the corner of Klingenberggata and Bakkegaden, in the old Vika neighborhood, adjacent to the Tivoli Gardens—a part of the city that completely disappeared when this area was entirely rebuilt in the 1930s. The circus stood approximately where the Klingenberg movie theater is now, in the middle of the present Olav V Gate.

At the time of the circus's construction(French) A temporary circus building, originally made of wood and canvas, and later, of steel elements supporting a canvas top and wooden wall. Also known as a "semi-construction.", the city was still called Christiania (it will become Oslo in 1925), and the circus was known originally as Cirkusbygningen i Christiania ("Christiania's circus building"). It was built by a Danish businessman named Bernhard Holger Jacobsen (1866-?), who had purchased the piece of land on which the Tivoli Gardens stood in 1887. The Gardens were not very successful, and Jacobsen thought building a circus there would attract larger crowds.

The architect he chose was Ove Laurentius Ekman (1847-1921), who had designed several buildings in Christiana, none of which of great significance: sadly, the Cirkusbygningen was to be his vanished masterpiece. It was a massive structure of red brick, with a monumental stone façade. The entire building occupied a total surface of 3,200 square meters (3,827 square yards); the house was 40 meters in diameter (131.23 feet), with a cupola that culminated at 32 meters (105 feet).

The house could accommodate 2,500 spectators, with four rows of seats around the ring and a row of boxes just behind them, and a third category with nine rows of seats on the upper level. Columns supported the cupola on the periphery behind the boxes. The orchestra was positioned above the ring entrance. The rest of the building housed the stables, storage rooms, dressing rooms for the performers, and the administration. It was heated and equipped with electric lighting. The total coast of the construction(French) A temporary circus building, originally made of wood and canvas, and later, of steel elements supporting a canvas top and wooden wall. Also known as a "semi-construction." amounted to 300,000 kronen, quite a significant amount at the time.

A Polyvalent Venue

Holger Jacobsen, who owned the Tivoli Gardens and the circus until 1897, was not a showman, and the Cirkusbygningen had been built principally to accommodate circus companies visiting Oslo. The grand opening, on March 15, 1890, was quite an event, with a visit of Gothold Schumann's renowned Cirkus Schumann, which was then based in Sweden. Gothold's son and successor, Max, and Max's sons and grandsons, would subsequently bring Cirkus Schumann in Oslo regularly, until the demolition of the building in 1935 to make place for the new Vika neighborhood: Cirkus Schumann was the last circus to perform in the building.

Since it had no permanent company, the circus quickly became a multivalent performing space, host to activities that were not necessarily related to the circus (thus its later name: Cirkus Verdensteater): In 1896, it hosted the first cinema performance in Norway. It became also well-known and appreciated for its music concerts—and its own resident orchestra had been led by such guest conductors as the celebrated Norwegian composers Johan Svendsen (1840–1911) and Edvard Grieg (1843–1907).

Unfortunately, Vika, the part of the city in which the circus stood was quite ancient and in need of remodeling. When it was decided in 1916 that a new City Hall would be built in Vika, the old, dilapidated buildings that formed the neighborhood had to disappear to allow a modern redesign of the area. The Tivoli Gardens and the Cirkus Verdensteater were finally demolished in 1935, never to be replaced.

Image Gallery

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  Cirkus Vardensteater in Christiania (c.1905)

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  Cirkus Schumann at the Cirkus Vardensteater (c.1925)