Tivoli Miniature World was a

theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

devoted to displaying 1/50 scale miniature fibreglass replicas of over 75 famous buildings from around the world. It was originally opened in 1977 in Jordan, Ontario before relocating to

Niagara Falls, Ontario Niagara Falls is a city in Ontario, Canada, adjacent to, and named after, Niagara Falls. As of the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census, the city had a population of 94,415. The city is located on the Niagara Peninsula along the western bank of the ...

in the early 1990s. The park eventually went bankrupt.

History

Canadia Miniturama

Impetus of the park was another nearby short-lived attraction called Canadia which was an eleven-acre miniature village and horticultural park in Niagara Falls. The all-Canadian themed landscapes and landmark building models were at a 1:24 scale. When it opened in May 1966, it was the largest such collection of large scale miniature buildings in the world. The models were made of wood structure with a thin exterior of mixed media for the details. In 1970, the park closed to make way for a shopping plaza that never gained city approval, with the property eventually being turned into a housing development. For years, the Canadia Group looked for suitable locations to reconstruct the park. Only about 25 buildings were saved, and kept in storage. In 1979 two of the models,

Casa Loma Casa Loma (Spanish for "Hill House") is a Gothic Revival castle-style mansion and garden in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that is now a historic house museum and landmark. It was constructed from 1911 to 1914 as a residence for financier S ...

the Parliament buildings, were put on temporary display at Tivoli. The problem was scale, Tivoli was designed in 1:24 scale, so the Canadia park models too large to match the theme of 1:50 scale buildings.

The Opening of Tivoli

Tivoli opened at Prudhomme's Landing on

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

on a 10-acre site. The park included

fibre-glass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

models of the

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an Ellipse, elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphi ...

, the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

and

Mount Rushmore The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a National Memorial (United States), national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (, or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dak ...

Tivoli later moved to Victoria Avenue in Niagara Falls. It closed in 1995 with the models being sold to a company in Sao Paulo. Brazil.

References

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History

Canadia Miniturama

The Opening of Tivoli

References

Further reading