ArticleHolmenkollen

The line between the concepts of "home" and "museum" is rather fine (even the very word "museum" is Greek for "seat/home of the Muses"), and it's hardly surprising that both are usually man-made. Open Air museums may be considered a partial exception to that rule but even more so - a place whose name is heavenly music to the ears of every winters sports aficionado. Nature itself co-created that place by not only providing physical space for it but also contributing to its spirit. Ladies and Gentlemen, Holmenkollen! 

To simply mention every ski competition hosted by that majestic sports complex, one would have to write a long article. To properly describe at least some of those competitions would probably require writing a book. An ordinary sports facility had over time turned into one of the most important national symbols - that's why the story of Holmenkollen became one of the stories of the Norwegian nation. 

It's easier to understand, how it happened, if we consider that, as early as 1890s, about 10,000 people would head for Husebybakken (an Oslo suburb regarded as the official predecessor of Holmenkollen) every single weekend - to simply watch skiers and ski-jumpers competing. However, an old, faded postcard speaks louder than any numbers: a young man, his face bright red in the cold, his countenance half-mocking and half-reverent, is offering a makeshift bouquet of some miraculously surviving winter growth to a curtseying young lady. Both are on skis - and completely oblivious of the fact that isn't interfering with either their movement or their emotions in any way, as if the skis were a mere extension of their bodies. 

Upon seeing that postcard, one would have been really surprised if there hadn't been a ski museum in Norway...