Oslo’s insect hotel opens in the Palace Park

The Royal Palace, Oslo, Norway, In the garden an Insect Hotel will be opened. The castle is surrounded by the Palace Square and the Royal Palace
. Photo: Trond Isaksen

OSLO/NORWAY: A sculpturally shaped insect hotel is the City of Oslo’s gift to the Royal couple on the occasion of their 25^th anniversary as regents. On Monday June 13^th at 16:00 CEST the Mayor of Oslo Marianne Borgen formally handed over the gift to the King and Queen.

1. H. M
   . King Harald and H. M
   . Queen Sonja with grandchildren are present in the Palace Park to accept the gift. Tom Hare, the British artist who has designed the insect hotel, is also present at the ceremony.

Tidy gardens, lawns and lack of dead wood, mean less and less habitat for wild bees and other beneficial insects. An insect hotel consists of artificially engineered “homes” where insects can lay eggs and hibernate until next summer.

 – With this gift, we want to emphasize the importance of strengthening the biodiversity of Oslo’s parks and gardens. The insect hotel is with its artistic design also a beautiful attraction to the enjoyment of all who visit the Palace Park, says Mayor Marianne Borgen
.

Tom Hare has become well known for his beautiful sculptures in wicker plant materials that have also been exhibited in Kew Gardens and Hampton Court Palace in Richmond, London. Hare has been responsible for the sculptural design of the hotel, but the location in the Palace Park has been selected in collaboration with the Royal Palace.

The insect hotel is located in The Queen’s park, the Palace Park’s southwestern and oldest part. The Palace nursery is now working to recreate this part of the Palace Park into an especially lush, floral area and to increase the biodiversity of the park

. Here, plants, insects, birds and other animal life are viewed in connection with an interesting and important part of Norwegian horticultural history.