Norway (Epcot)
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The Norway pavilion is part of the World Showcase within Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Layout
The 58,000 square foot Norway pavilion is designed to look like a Norwegian village. The village includes a detailed stave church, and the exterior of its main table-service restaurant, Restaurant Akershus, resembles its namesake in Oslo. The exhibit showcases 4 styles of Norwegian architecture: Setesdal-style, Bergen-style, Oslo-style and Alesund-style.

Much of the pavilion is taken up by interconnected shops. These shops are decorated with large wooden trolls and sell assorted Norwegian goods, including clothing, candy, and small troll statues. The courtyard of the pavilion contains the entrance to Maelstrom, a boat ride into Norway's past and present. Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe is a bakery, featuring assorted Norwegian pastries, such as cream horns and open-faced salmon sandwiches. There is a Viking ship, inspired by the famous Oseberg ship, that was formerly used as a children's play area. The courtyard contains the entrance to Restaurant Akershus, featuring a hot and cold buffet and "Princess Storybook Dining."

History
The Norway pavilion is the most recent nation to be added to World Showcase. It was officially opened in June 1988 by Crown Prince Harald in a ceremony that was broadcast live to Norway. The original idea was to create a Nordic Pavilion that would combine elements from various countries into one exhibit. Three countries were consulted, but it finally ended up with investors from Norway raising the required US$30 million as to create an exclusive national pavilion. Disney contributed the other one-third of the construction cost. In 1992, the investors sold their stake to Disney. Since nearly as many people visit Epcot as live in Norway, the government felt it still was a good promotional tool for their tourism industry. The federal government continued to contribute US$200,000 annually for five years to help fund the exhibit. Renewed in 1997 for a further 5 years, the government stopped payments in 2002, against the recommendations from their American embassy.

The article text above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Norway (Epcot)".

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