History Comes to Light - Norway Town Sees Winter Sun for 1st Time

Town near famed WWII commando raids to stop Hitler from getting "Heavy Water" needed for the NAZI A-Bomb gets a reflection planned a century ago. m/r

Norway Town Sees Winter Sun for 1st Time
10-30-13
By MARK LEWIS
Associated Press
STAVANGER, Norway
Residents of the small Norwegian town of Rjukan have finally seen the light.

Tucked in between steep mountains, the town is normally shrouded in shadow for almost six months a year, with residents having to catch a cable car to the top of a nearby precipice to get a fix of midday vitamin D.

But on Wednesday faint rays from the winter sun for the first time reached the town's market square, thanks to three 183-square-foot (17-square-meter) mirrors placed on a mountain.

Cheering families, some on sun loungers, drinking cocktails and waving Norwegian flags, donned shades as the sun crept from behind a cloud to hit the mirrors and reflect down onto the faces of delighted children below.
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Like much of Scandinavia, the town of Rjukan often is freezing throughout the winter, but on Wednesday it was 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) there.

The Italian town of Viganella has a similar, but smaller, sun mirror.

The plan to illuminate Rjukan was cooked up 100 years ago by the Norwegian industrialist Sam Eyde, who built the town to provide workers for a hydroelectric plant he located at the foot of a nearby waterfall.

The renowned engineer never saw his plan become reality, but his plant and the Telemark town he founded developed a special affection in the Norwegian imagination as the site of the country's most famous wartime escapade.
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