Elia (sculpture)


Elia is a sculpture created by Ingvar Cronhammar in Herning, Denmark. It is a large, spherical dome with four columns reaching. The dome itself has a diameter of. A large tube located in the center of the sculpture randomly blasts flames into the air, for about 25 seconds at a time. These random bursts can occur anytime in periods of about two months and will not occur if it is too windy or if people are too close. The work was inaugurated in September 2001 and cost 23 million Danish krone.

Accidents

On 30 October 2016 a 21-year-old man died by falling down the center. 2 months later, on 29 December 2016, a woman died the same way, purportedly committing suicide by jumping into the centre chamber.
This ultimately resulted in the sculpture getting a safety net installed. In connection with the installation of the net, an installer fell several meters down and subsequently had to be taken to hospital by ambulance. On 23 March 2021, a 46-year-old man died in one of the four steel pipes while performing maintenance on the sculpture.

Dimensions and materials

The sculpture has the following dimensions and material use:
MeasureMeter
Diameter at ground level60.00
Height above ground level 32.00
Height to upper platform11.22
Radius in the steel dome42.00
Radius at bottom110.8
Staircase width10.00
Step height0.34

MaterialsAmount
Steel sheeting270 t
Structural steel80 t
Steel pillars30 t
Concrete250 m³
Asphalt300 t
Reinforcement steel15 t
Volume of earth excavated7,000 m³
Terrain regulation20,000 m³ earth