Talk:Solvang, California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject California, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

This Article is a part of the Santa Barbara County WikiProject. Please contribute!

Solvang: pronounced - "Solve ang" y'all I think that maybe the bit about architecture ought to be changed? It's after after all much closer to German architecture. /Zxmaster

Solvang was founded by Danish immigrants in 1911, Solvang boasts authentic architecture, thatched roofs, old-world craftsmanship and traditional windmills. Over 1 million visitors come each year to experience the northern European culture, cuisine and unique boutique shopping. The pedestrian-friendly village hosts three museums, 15 inns and hotels, a full-service guest ranch, meeting facilities, 30+ restaurants and bakeries, 150 retail shops and the Solvang Theaterfest, an alfresco 700-seat theatre. Plus, a Chumash casino is only three miles away. Info brenda (talk) 05:35, 12 March 2008 (UTC)bkb

[edit] I agree

I agree with you, because i saw a danish program about a danish biker, who travel through USA on a Harley Davidson, he meant that Solvang did´nt look very danish. He also though that it more looked like the southern part of Germany.

The biker asked a local dane about Solvang and said that Solvang, to him did´nt look like Denmark! The local dane said that Solvang isnt much danish anymore! The dane tolded that is because that the first people of Solvang: the danes. Isnt here anymore, that they are extinct and that there successors has moved to other parts of America and have moved over to the american lifestyle and culture.

After that, Solvang has been invaded by Americans and some few other nationalities who meant how the city should look out and what should be danish. Very wrong work! Because i am danish and Solvang doesnt look danish. Solvang seems more like a alpine village in Germany, Switzerland or Austria instead.

Beside the architecture, in Solvang, there has been planted foreign flags instead of dannebrog, there has come more restaurants serving american food mostly and there are a rstaurant who name is: Heidelberg! As i know! Heidelberg is in Germany! We danes can not get enough of germans in Jutland!

Your word as a Dane does not mean much, because your opinion and evidence amounts entirely to NPOV which is against Wikipedia's standards. Of course there are Americans and American food in Solvang, Solvang is in America, is that a concept hard to grasp? And I don't see how Americans could "invade" a town that was in America made by people who later on were defined as Americans.

Shogyou Mujou 15:39, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

As a German who has also been to Denmark I must say that to me personally it looks more like a Disney-version of a bavarian village with a danish windmill in it. I'd rather not call it Danish or German at all, but try to find some category like "American-retro-middle-north-European-style" or something, because it in no way authentic European architecture, but an American interpretation of European architecture which stands for itself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.56.6.139 (talk) 22:25, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

I have to correct myself. As I have just seen more pictures of the town, this is clearly Danish style and not German. Maybe the idea of it beeing German came up because of the half-timbering, but that can be found in complete Europe and is not typical for Germany. But that kind of roof they got in Solvang is typical for Denmark and the very north of Germany. The windmill is typical for Denmark as well, you can see dozens of them when driving through the country. I can't see any "typical" German style of architecture at all. The impression of the Danish guy may come from the fact that this town is an image of the Denmark of the past. Of course Denmark today looks totally different, especially in town people won't be living like that. That's where my retro-tought came from. Tourists visiting Europe often want to see a Europe of the past which in that way does not exist anymore, which e.g. leads to the strange fact Bavarian style and culture of the past, which is conserved a little in some areas, is often set equal with German style and culture of the present. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.56.6.139 (talk) 22:38, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

With the pictures in the article as well as what I could find elsewhere, I (as a Dane) have to say that most of the roofs in particular are very distincly non-Danish. Traditional Danish roofs are almost exclusively composed of bright orange-red tiles of a distinct corrugated rectangular shape, with the only common exception (rare in cities, but very common rurally) being thatched roofs. The half-timbering does not appear specifically German to a Dane, but the roofs (eg. copper roofs with green patina) do, as well as the spires and all that stuff added to the roofs. Traditional Danish architecture can be seen here. Also the enclosed sidewalk with arches on the street side is very distincly non-Danish (but can be found further south in Europe, although it doesn't seem very German either), and the font used for storefronts is German. The streetlamps are also not very Danish, but do remind me of Disneyland. To a Dane, it looks like a mixture of Disneyland and traditional German (/Bavarian) architecture, but with a Danish windmill and a copy of rundetårn slapped on for kicks. Sakkura 03:24, 16 November 2007 (UTC)