It's happening at Marienlyst!

Museet har startet en prosess som består av ulike delprosjekter. Våren 2023 fullførte man det omfattende arbeidet med å tømme Øst- og Nordfløyen der de stilhistoriske utstillingene sto Dette var helt nødvendig for at NIKU (Norsk Institutt for Kulturminneforskning) kunne begynne med et forprosjekt som innebar undersøkelser av interiørene for å finne tilbake til originale farger og tapeteter. De har foretatt analyser av pigmenter og utvalgte tapeter og bygningselementer i Øst- og Nordfløyen.

Konservatorene fra NIKU ser store muligheter rundt restaureringsprosjektet på Marienlyst. Det er en fordel at det unike bygningskomplekset ble museum allerede i 1911. altså for 112 år siden i år. Dermed er det ikke i museets eierperiode gjort store inngrep i disse unike bygningene etter det som ble gjort av ombygginger i museets første fase. De historiske sporene er mange, og vi vil derfor finne ny og verdifull kunnskap om interiørene. Vi står rett og slett med en skattekiste rett foran oss!
 
Formålet med oppdraget til NIKU er å gi museet en dokumentert oversikt over bygningens historikk, hvilke undersøkelser og hvilke tiltak vi bør gjøre i fortsettelsen. Dette innebærer et uvurderlig faglig grunnlag for valg av håndverksmessige metoder og ikke minst bruk av tradisjonelle materialer. Dette vil også hjelpe oss til å kartlegge hvilke små og verneverdige håndverksfag som behøves i neste fase. I forprosjektet har det blitt utført en avgrenset undersøkelse av utvalgte rom. Formålet har både vært å dokumentere disse rommene, og å få et generelt overblikk over hvor mye som er bevart og hva vi kan finne.

I Østfløyen har to rom blitt undersøkt: Empire-værelset og Moe-værelset. Undersøkelsen har vist at rommene opprinnelig har vært ett rom som har blitt slått sammen. Senere fikk hele rommet velurtapetet, som ble gjenskapt i Empire-rommet på 1990-tallet. Skilleveggen ble sannsynligvis satt opp etter 1847. Det vet vi fordi Moe-værelset da ble tapetsert med et stemplet tapet fra den norske produsenten Frølich «Tapet-Fabrik.F. H. Frölich Christiania», som ble grunnlagt nettopp i 1847.
 
I Nordfløyen har tre rom blitt undersøkt: Storstuen, Dagligstuen og Visittstuen. Rommene har selvfølgelig hatt ulike navn gjennom historien, men jeg bruker disse betegnelsene for enkelhets skyld. I Storstuen er det sannsynlig at det er brukt såkalt auripigment i første malingslag. Navnet kommer fra latin som betyr fargestoff av gull. Pigmentet som er sitrongult er ustabilt og svært giftig siden det blant annet består av arsenikk og svovel. Vi skal naturligvis bruke giftfri variant ved eventuell tilbakeføring. Dagligstuen har sannsynligvis vært mørkerød. NIKU har også ekspertise på tradisjonshåndverk som rekonstruksjon av farger og tapeter, forgylling og restaurering av bygningsdeler. Dette representerer små og verneverdige, faktisk truede, håndverksfag. Norge har forpliktet seg til å ta vare på disse fagene gjennom Unescos konvensjon om vern av immateriell kulturarv som trådte kraft i Norge i 2007.

Tilstandsvurderingen Løken Bygg har foretatt av selve bygningene vil gi oss grunnlaget for de viktige valgene som skal gjøres videre i restaureringensprosessen. Her vil fokus være på Vestfløyen med såkalt tilstandsgrad 3. Bygningen har store setningsskader og har sunket med mellom 5 til 15 cm.
De anbefalte tiltakene er omfattende og viser hvor komplekst dette prosjektet er.
Blant annet:
– Demontere vinduer og dører for istandsetting og restaurering
– Demontere takstein for supplering av tilsvarende stein
– Demontere og remontere gulvbord og andre bygningsdeler og skifte ut råteskadde deler i konstruksjonen
– Demontere, supplere og remontere deler av den utvendige kledningen
– Etablere ny fundamentering for å heve og rette bygningen så nært opp til det opprinnelige som mulig.
På slutten av 1920-tallet ble det laget en åpning i Vestfløyen fra gårdsrommet i aksen mot Museets nye hovedbygning. Dette er årsaken til mye av svikten i den bærende konstruksjonen.
 
Restaureringsarbeidene er godt egnet som kursobjekter siden mye av skadene ikke krever spesialutstyr eller kompliserte løsninger. Materialkostnadene vil være relativt beskjedne, siden mye kan gjenbrukes. Her har vi altså en viktig og aktuell inngang til formidlingen ved å vektlegge tradisjonshåndverk, noe det er stor og økende interesse for. Ett eksempel er produksjon og restaurering av bygningsdeler som kan utføres med enkle håndverksverktøy på stedet. Det legges vekt på at kvalitetsmaterialer skal fremskaffes av lokale leverandører. Eksisterende byggematerialer skal gjenbrukes der det er mulig. Samarbeidspartnere vil være Håndverksinstituttet,  Fortidsminneforeningen, elever innen byggfag på videregående skoler og Buskerud Bygingsvernsenter.
 
Bærekraft blir et viktig aspekt i prosjektet på flere nivåer. Her kan vi trekke frem gjenbruk av materialer og bygningsdeler, lokalisering av prosjektet på stedet, tilrettelegging for at flere i lokalmiljøet kan delta uavhengig av økonomi og ikke minst ivaretakelse og tilgjengeliggjøring av et viktig kulturminne. Prosjektet vil omfatte samarbeid med mange ressurspersoner i  ulike fagmiljøer. Samarbeidet vil gi viktige synergieffekter og danne grunnlag for viktige lokale nettverk innen kunnskapsproduksjon, kunnskapsdeling og bevaring av den materielle og immaterielle kulturarven.
 
Museet har solid erfaring med å etablere en læringsarena for istandsetting og fordypning i tradisjonshåndverk, særlig gjennom prosjektet med istandsetting av låven fra Straumen på Friluftsmuseet i 2020. Her var samarbeidet med lokale skoler for kurs i reisverk og restaureringslaft helt sentralt med henblikk på kunnskapsoverføring. Prosessen med istandsettelse av Marienlyst vil også skape fornyet forståelse for bygningshistorien ikke minst på grunn av dokumentasjonen som gjøres underveis.
 
Et verksted og visningsrom i Vestfløyen vil bli en viktig formidlingsarena for ulike håndverksteknikker.
Her vil vi også fortelle overordnet om Marienlystprosjektet i de ulike fasene, en historie som vil ha aktualitet i lang tid fremover. Vi skal også stille ut aktuelle gjenstander fra samlingene som verktøy, bevarte deler av tapeter og sjeldne bygningsdeler.
 
Tradisjonshåndverk og ulike håndverksfag er dermed et stikkord for både bygningsmassen og istandsetting av interiørene. Alt dette skaper en vev av fortellinger som skaper en helhet i formidlingen av prosjektet. I forlengelse av dette planlegger vi temporære utstillinger i Nord- og Østfløyen som en læringsprosess for utviklingen av et hovedkonsept for permanente utstillinger og andre arrangementer i anlegget. Det er foreløpig aktuelt med ett prosjekt pr år som skal ta utgangspunkt i Marienlyst og aktuelle gjenstander fra samlingene. Alle arrangementer og utstillinger skal stå i direkte dialog med Marienlyst, bygningene som ramme og historien til anlegget.

Den overordnede strategien er å formidle dette unike prosjektet underveis i restaureringsprosess for å skape forståelse for viktigheten og omfanget av arbeidet som skal gjøres fremover. Det ligger et stort formidlingspotensiale her, særlig for barn og unge som en viktig målgruppe for å kunne fortsette å fortelle historien om Marienlyst for fremtidige generasjoner med forankring i Drammes historie og lokal identitet.
Vi ser fremover, men en viktig del av prosjektet er også å dokumentere historien og å overføre kunnskap via kurs i tradisjonshåndverk og små og verneverdige håndverksfag. Dette gir oss en viktig og aktuell inngang til formidlingen.

På Drammens Museum er det en rekke programmer i Den Kulturelle Skolesekken. Når museets museumspedagoger lager et undervisningsopplegg for barn og unge tar de utgangspunkt i læreplanene for samfunnsfag og for kunst- og håndverk.

I undervisningsopplegget er det fokus å sette elevene inn i et tema, samtale og aktivisere elevene.
Her er det mange temaer og aktiviteter som kan formidles med utgangspunkt i lystgårdsanlegget. Utvikling av forståelse for tradisjonshåndverk og små og verneverdige håndverksfag vil være en viktig læringsarena for barn og unge i tråd med læreplanene
 
Her er det blant annet aktuelt å trekke inn aspekter ved NIKUs videre undersøkelser i hovedprosjektet: Tilbakeføring av originale farger er et formidlingsgrep for å forteller om forfengelighen til de private eierne opp gjennom historien og de vakre, men ofte farlige materialene overklassen omga seg med for å signalisere rikdom. Dette var det få som hadde råd til.

Her kan vi naturligvis også trekke inn sosialhistorie. Dette er noe museumspedagogene allerede har tematisert på Austad og i de faste utstillingene på museet. De ser et svært stort potensiale i å trekke dette ut til Marienlyst-anlegget.  Å grave seg bakover i historien ved å skrelle vekk ett og ett lag kan være like spennende som arkeologi.
 
Museet arrangerer Barnas Kunstklubb åtte ganger i året. Opplegget for Barnas Kunstklubb på Marienlyst den 12. november 2023 satte besøksrekord. Pedagogene startet med en runde i Østfløyen. Barna fikk gå omkring og undre seg og tenke høyt. Hvem har bodd her? Barn? Hvor mange? Hva het de? Bodde det en eller flere familier her? Hva jobbet de voksne med? «Hva er det der for noe?». Dette opplegget skal videreføres og videreutvikles i 2024.

I tillegg skaper vi stor og entusiastisk interesse for prosjektet via deltakelse i det nasjonale og internasjonale Herregårdsnettverket, blant annet med bidrag som innlegg på seminarer. Vi har utstrakt kontakt med fagfolk i nettverket.
 
Vi har også startet aktuell grunnforskning på gjenstander og arkiver i museets samlinger, Drammen Byarkiv, og i arkiver på Nasjonalbiblioteket og Nasjonalmuseet. Denne dokumentasjonen er viktig del av historikken rundt Marienlyst med henblikk på å skrive både populærvitenskapelige artikler og artikler til fagfellevurdering for publisering i fagtidsskrifter.

When the Drammens Museum moved into Marienlyst in 1911, the extensive collection consisted of approximately 2,200 objects. A selection of these were to be exhibited in the educational style history exhibitions in the North and East Wings. But the rest needed storage space. We find details about the objects in the museum's old protocols, where they are entered in neat handwriting with a number and description.

Already early in the museum's history, there were plans to build a new building that would enable temporary exhibitions, house the administration, conservation studio and, not least, be the final solution to the storage problems. It was not until 1930 that the main building, designed by architect Christian Fredrik Arbo, was inaugurated. But the problem of lack of magazine space continued.

The museum's first special exhibition opened in October 1923 in the Kunstforeningen's premises in Børsen precisely because of the lack of space at Marienlyst. City prospectuses, photographs and measurements of old buildings in Drammen and the surrounding area were shown here.

In the first decades, the museum did not have a director, but a "Management". For a number of years, this consisted of, among others, chief prosecutor A. Juel (chairman) and chief prosecutor C: O. Lund. Another name that appears early on is Anneken Louise Pettersen. In the yearbook from 1918 under the heading "Museet's board and staff" it is written that she carries out "museum work". In the same year, she was appointed conservator. She contributed a number of long and scholarly articles to the yearbooks, a result of her research into the museum's collections

Anneken Pettersen also collaborated with several people who were to make themselves known within the Norwegian museum field in the interwar period. When the first floor of the North Wing at Marienlyst was to be furnished with a style-historical interior exhibition from the period 1780-1840, "Mr. conservator" Thor Kielland brought in as professional expertise. Kielland later became director of the Kunstindustrimuseet in Oslo. We must also mention professor and art historian CW Schnitler, who had been Pettersen's teacher in art history at the University of Oslo. He researched Gulskogen farm's history, and we must be able to assume that Pettersen was a resource during this work.

For a number of years, Pettersen's official role was rather secluded compared to her male colleagues. But it was she who, in 1946, became the first at the museum to receive the formal title of "director", as the very first woman in Norway. And thus Drammens Museum has helped write women's history!

We would like to get to know the people who can be linked to the story of Marienlyst better. They were all people of their time and can help us to understand the facility better, also as a small piece of social history.
For now, we know mostly about the main characters and not the servants, farm helpers and householders and others who were connected to the operation. These have mostly gone down in history as anonymous, but are mentioned by name in the censuses.
 
The story begins with Else Angell (1710-1787) and her acquisition of properties. She became a merchant's widow early on Albert Angell (1697-1746), and was an enterprising lady!
 
The property is then taken over by the harbor bailiff and war council His Thomas Weyer (1721-1790) and Mrs Magdalena Weyer (1732-1819). Weyer is building the pleasure garden here Weyersfryd where he and his family could withdraw from the public eye. The buildings get their current design between 1770 and about 1780, including the gazebo..

Council of Justice Hans Heinrich Tønder (1738-1808) buys the plant from Weyer's widow in 1795 and renames it Tøndersfryd. His ownership period is called "Lystgården's culmination". Tønder was eloquent and inquisitive and characterized by the ideals of the Enlightenment. He stood at the top of the social hierarchy, and practiced extensive sociability as befits a man of his class background. He never married.
 
Grosser His Malling (1748-1816) and his wife Marie (1751-1820) takes over in 1808, and the plant remains in the family's possession until 1843. It is now that the plant gets its name Marienlyst Malling runs a trading business on Strømsø. A large timber business made him one of the city's richest men during "the so-called golden period around the year 1800. But then there are hard times and bankruptcies as a result of the conjectures during the Napoleonic Wars. The Malling family will feel the ripple effects of this.
The farm is sold by the family in 1843. The buyer is a commercial gardener Jørgen Knudsen (1806-1862), "Knudsen på Enga", who builds a large horticulture and plant school on the property The municipality took over the management of Marienlyst after Knudsen's widow Anne Margrethes (1786-1870) dead, and sold it on to a textile manufacturer Jørgen Birdsong (1809-1877) in 1873.

And then, optimistically enough, Marienlyst was bought by Jacob Styrmoe (1823-1886), mayor of Skoger and brewery owner. But he had simply taken water over his head and turned out to be insolvent. The municipality stepped in as a buyer and made the property available to the Drammen Museum in 1909. The exhibitions at Marienlyst opened in 1911, for Drammen's 100th anniversary.

The garden at Marienlyst was part of the pleasure garden complex that was completed around 1790.
The planting has varied considerably over the years. In 2004, a garden archaeological excavation was carried out to investigate what changes the garden had undergone and whether the walkways had always been in the same place as today. The excavation showed that the crossing walkways that divide the garden into four so-called quarters and the enclosing road had been there all along and were covered with sand and river gravel.

Inside each of the quarters, no structures were found in the soil layers, but in the south-west quarter, a buried bottom was found, probably the foundation for a water tank. This has been reconstructed. In the north-west quarter, buried horse dung was also found in three rows which probably served as heating beds for demanding plants such as palms and pineapples (!).

Today, the facility is organized symmetrically around a main axis, typical of classicism, with international models from, among other things, the garden at Versailles, which was laid out in the 1630s. The axis starts at the garden door in the East Wing and runs in a straight line towards the gazebo, which forms a central motif.

The gazebo is from around 1780 and originally formed the transition between the private garden and the landscape outside, which was previously open towards the city. We must remember that Marienlyst was outside the city center at the time, long before the regulation of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsonsgate came.

During the 2006-2008 renovation, which was paid for by Sparebank Øst, they built on what was found and what could be maintained following the example of the high standard from the 18th century. The plan was drawn up by gardener Jan Høvo and combines flowers and a herb garden. The plants used were common in 18th-century Norwegian gardens. Examples of this include daylilies, daisies, peonies, sage and thyme.

The flower beds are laid out along the central axis, which is edged with cut turf. Along the transverse axis are rows of berry bushes and fruit trees which are also planted along the outer edge of the quarters. A jasmine hedge on the north side provides a demarcation, but the fence used to run along the edge of the walkway. The hedge on the southern side of the garden was planted in the 1920s to separate the garden from Hallingtunet, where there was an orchard in the 19th century. The facility is currently managed by José Arroyo Perez, who has expertise in historic gardens.

Merchant gardener Jørgen Knudsen (1806-1862), "Knudsen på Enga", bought Marienlyst in 1843. On the property he built a large nursery and nursery which he ran together with his wife Anne Margrethe Knudsen. That's the end of Marienlyst's time as an amusement park.

The import of plants and seeds shows that Knudsen was oriented towards the world outside Drammen in his efforts to obtain attractive plants for the city. The married couple advertised the products in the local newspapers: "English Apricots and Peach Trees, Vines, Extra Good Gooseberries, White Grapes, Currants, Moss Roses, Rosa unica and Rosa Tuscany" You could also buy different varieties of apples and pears, in addition to asparagus, radishes , caraway and salad. In other words, everything you needed to build your own kitchen garden. Perhaps the selection for Knudsen would have been just as relevant today? Among other things, Knudsen also delivered 250 chestnut trees to Bygdø Kongsgård.

On the property, the couple had their own sales stall for fruit and vegetables, the so-called "Knudsehytta". Around the courtyard, on Marienlyst, i.e. in the heart of the facility itself, there was a throng of people in the residential wing, in the kitchen, in the boys' room, in the sheds with storage rooms and in other outbuildings. In the courtyard there was also the water main, which was an important prerequisite for the entire business.

The census from 1865 shows that a total of 40 people lived on Marienlyst and the adjacent Scheitlieløkken. Here we find most of the social classes in society: a housekeeper, maid, an office assistant, a ship owner, a sheriff, a merchant, a master carpenter, a master maltster, a laborer and a grounds worker. All men are listed by name, unlike wives, children and servants (!)

Knudsen, who was an enterprising and respected man with social ambitions, died in 1862. Ever since he bought Marienlyst, he had been churchwarden at Strømsgodset church, where he is also buried. The widow created a bequest for the benefit of the poor in Strømsgodset, and the funds for this were to be taken from the sale price of Marienlyst. After a couple of successive changes of ownership, the property was bought by Drammen municipality, which made it available for the museum in 1909.

Barely ten years later, you can read in the museum's yearbook that allotment gardens were laid out in the park that surrounded Marienlyst. Here we are, in a way, back to the starting point in the 1770s, when an important part of the operation of the pleasure farm was to run matauk. During the First World War, there was a shortage of goods, and for many of the residents in the area, growing vegetables was an important supplement to the household. Something to think about today too?

Marienlyst appears as a complete pleasure farm from the 1770s. And what exactly is an amusement park?

Initially, these facilities were built on agricultural properties or so-called loop properties. They were located some distance from the city centers, but not further away that one could travel into the city if business called.

Here wealthy townspeople could retire and hopefully take a few moments of freedom from material sorrows. Then the distinction between the public and the private became fundamental: How did one appear in public and what was one like behind the facade in one's free time? The farms were mainly used in the summer, but several eventually became year-round residences, which was also the case for Marienlyst at the beginning of the 19th century. Names of well-known pleasure farms in the Drammen area, however, emphasize their use in the summer season: Frydenhaug, Sommerfryd and not least Marienlyst.

Already the ancient Romans distinguished between one villa urbana, which was inside the city, and a villa suburbana which was away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Here they could combine the useful with the pleasant (delectare a prodesse), i.e. both agriculture and sociability. So here we can actually draw the line from Italian antiquity all the way to Drammen's pleasure grounds.

The combination of matauk and country life at a reasonable distance from the city's hustle and bustle was few and far between. One also had the option of leaving a city center in case of plague and cholera. This clearly emphasizes the difference between the social strata.

In a pleasure garden complex, buildings and gardens are usually closely linked, as in the more distinguished manor estates and castles we find in Norway. A good example of the latter is the newly restored park that surrounds the pleasure castle Oscarshall on Bygdøy. This was certainly laid out as a romantic garden with winding paths. The historic garden between the East wing and the gazebo on Marienlyst, on the other hand, has a tight axial feel. It was reworked in 2006-2008 after thorough investigations of previous structures of gravel paths and planting. It was largely the same garden history expertise that contributed here as during the work on the park at Oscarshall.

Let yourself be inspired by the painted wallpapers in the great living room in the so-called East Wing at Marienlyst. The room is perhaps the most exciting in the entire amusement park facility, quite simply a small art historical treasure chest. The tapestries, which date from the late 1770s, were rediscovered in 1951 in connection with restoration work. Under a total of 9 layers of paper wallpaper and two layers of paint, decorative pictorial fields were found which were probably painted by Johan Diderich von Dram (1725-1798).

The fields are set over a marbled chest panel and show a stately life out in the green. Here we see, among other things, elegant ladies engaged in board games and a well-dressed gentleman playing the flute while his graceful companion flips through sheet music. Distinguished people sit around a set table, and in two of the scenes we also witness what is probably a successful and less successful courtship. The scenes are rendered with overgrown, ancient ruins in the background which act as a kind of backdrop.

In one of the fields, a festive married couple poses. This may be a double portrait of harbor bailiff and war councilor Hans Thomas Weyer (1728-1790) and his wife Magdalena (c. 1732 – 1815) welcoming their guests. It was Weyer who built Marienlyst as we know it today, with a two-storey main building and lower side wings. The facility was completed around 1780 and got its name Weyersfryd according to the owner. Here the family could retire and indulge in rural activities a good distance away from the apartment building they owned on Strømsø. As befits an amusement park facility, a park with a small gazebo was also built.

Marienlyst has had several owners throughout history, and it was when grocer Hans Malling (1748-1816) and his wife Marie (1751-1820) took over that the facility got its name Marienlyst which is today the name of the entire area.