Furuviksparken, Zoo and amusement park in Furuvik, Sweden.
Furuviksparken is a zoo and amusement park in Furuvik, about 10 km east of Gävle. The zoo includes an ape landscape with lemurs, chimpanzees and orangutans, plus camels, tortoises, fish and birds such as budgerigars. The amusement park has 15 rides, among them the roller coaster Lightning, opened for the 2023 season, and Fireball, a Family Boomerang Rebound launched in 2017. The grounds also hold a 50-metre pool by the entrance, a children's pool and water slides.
Uppsala–Gävle railway traffic manager Oscar Jacobsson conceived the park after a trip to the United States, and Count Olle Cronstedt inaugurated it on 17 August 1900. It closed for several years during World War I, decayed, and was bought by SJ in the early 1930s. SJ sold it to Gösta Nygren in 1935, and he reopened it in 1937; his son Lars was CEO until 1963 and daughter Laila Nygren-Söderberg 1968–1983. Gävle Municipality took over in 1983.
Since the 1940s an Åland-style midsummer pole has been raised in the park each year. The youth circus Furuviksbarnen, founded after circus director Jean Houcke built a circus building at Furuvik in 1940, performed both in the park and on tours. Louis Armstrong, Jussi Björling and Sammy Davis appeared here.
The park lies about 10 km east of Gävle, where national road 76 and the Ostkustbanan railway pass; UL buses 501 and 510 stop at the entrance, and since 2006 the station has regular train service, now run by Mälartåg. A 50-metre pool and a children's pool sit by the entrance, with changing rooms, toilets and an ice-cream kiosk nearby. Three former German sleeping cars painted in Orient Express livery stand beside the pool.
Since May 2008 Lund University has run a primate research station at Furuvik, studying the cognition of great apes. The chimpanzee Santino, on his island, placed stones on the side of the moat facing visitors and threw them when people arrived, which researchers reported in 2009 as evidence of forward planning.
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