California town now home to world-famous troll statue
A California museum is now the permanent home of a massive mythological resident.
The California Nature Art Museum in Solvang is the latest location to welcome a permanent art installation by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, whose whimsical sculptures made of recycled materials depict large, playful trolls.
On Sunday, the museum introduced the world to Lulu Hyggelig, the latest of Dambo’s troll statues and the first to permanently reside in California.
Lulu lives in the museum’s rotunda where the building’s curved yellow walls barely contain her larger-than-life figure.
Her fictional biography, written by Dambo himself, tells the story of how Lulu Hyggelig ended up in Solvang and how she bit off more than she could chew to feed her appetite for Danish patisserie:
Lulu Hyggelig
This story has a history
that starts before the past.
A tiny troll from far away,
she swam the ocean vast.
She found a cozy city and
took shelter in a tower,
on a street that smelled of
Danish pastries, yeast, and flour.
At night she searched through
all the trash cans patiently for pastry
and ate the cakes they made too much,
behind the local bakery.
Then slid back through the tower door
before the night was gone,
and so she did, day after day,
a hundred years went on.
But then one day, her tummy rumbled
louder than a thunder.
She no longer could squeeze it through
the door to feed her hunger.
Trapped inside the tower,
Lulu lives a life alone.
So bring a little cake if you
intend to save your own.
Dambo’s trolls can be found across Europe and in the U.S., including several in New England and the Pacific Northwest. But the largest population of the more-than 150 creatures can be found in his native Denmark.
An perhaps it is only fitting that his first California troll now calls the “Danish Capital of the U.S.” its home.
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Thomas Dambo’s newest troll sculpture debuted at the California Nature Museum in Solvang on Feb. 2, 2025. (Anna Ferguson-Sparks) -
Thomas Dambo’s newest troll sculpture debuted at the California Nature Museum in Solvang on Feb. 2, 2025. (Anna Ferguson-Sparks) -
A hand-illustrated poem by Thomas Dambo tells the story of his latest troll sculpture, Lulu Hyggelig, which debuted at the California Nature Museum in Solvang on Feb. 2, 2025. (California Nature Museum) -
Thomas Dambo’s newest troll sculpture debuted at the California Nature Museum in Solvang on Feb. 2, 2025. (Thomas Dambo)
Funding for the project cost the museum approximately $300,000, but museum officials say they believe it will be a major attraction for those driving through the heart of Santa Barbara County wine country.
In the true spirit of community and reuse, the public was asked to help raise funds for the project, or make physical donations of wooden pallets, wine barrels and other building materials.
The museum says it is still in need of monetary donations to fully fund the installation. The biggest donors will have their names recognized on a sponsor board near the museum entrance where guests visiting Lulu can learn more about her story.
The California Nature Art Museum, formerly the Wilding Museum, is located at 1511 Mission Dr., on the western half of the city’s main drag; look for the curved brick building and a large, wooden figure with a mop of wild hair playfully sticking out its tongue.