Nigloland, Theme park in Dolancourt, France.
Nigloland is a family amusement park in Dolancourt in northeastern France with four themed areas. The facility offers rides for different age groups and several dining areas.
Patrice and Philippe Gélis, former fairground showmen, opened Nigloland on 13 June 1987 on their family's 18-hectare estate in Dolancourt, after visiting Walt Disney World in the early 1980s. The initial seven million francs paid for a crêperie, a restaurant and seven attractions, including the Train western and Carrousel 1900. In 1993 they bought equipment from the bankrupt Parc de la Toison d'or at scrap prices, which supplied the village merveilleux.
The park's name comes from its mascot Niglo, the Romani word for hedgehog. The five themed villages — Canadian, rock 'n' roll, magical, Swiss and Niglo's forest — each stage their own rides and shows, and the Niglo Show, an animatronic theatre inspired by Disney's Country Bear Jamboree, opened for the park's fifth anniversary.
The park lies in Dolancourt, in the Aube department, on the family property of eighteen hectares where the Gélis brothers installed it in 1987. The grounds are divided into themed villages, among them the Canadian, rock 'n' roll, magical and Swiss villages, plus Niglo's forest. The Swiss village holds a fifty-metre Ferris wheel by Gerstlauer, installed in 2009, which gives a view over the whole site.
The park's mascot, Niglo, is a hedgehog: the name comes from Romani. The Gélis brothers opened the gates on 13 June 1987 with seven attractions, a crêperie and a restaurant on their 18-hectare family property in Dolancourt. Attendance reached a record 763,000 visitors in 2022.
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