Carnival rides at the Osteria ai pioppi in Nervesa della Battaglia, Italy. (Oriol Ferrer Mesia)

Amusement park rides without electricity? That’s what the owner of a restaurant in northeastern Italy created to attract more customers.

Tucked away in a wooded area near the restaurant, Osteria ai pioppi, are several carnival rides that function only on kinetic energy. Rollercosters, slides, seesaws and tilt-a-whirls use only the energy provided by the people on the rides.

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“A branch falls, a leaf floats down, a bird flies by, a stone rolls. And I say to myself, ‘Maybe I can use this movement,’” the restaurant’s owner Bruno said about conceiving the idea for the rides in a documentary about his unusual restaurant.

A month after the restaurant opened in 1969 he took his idea to the local blacksmith in Nervesa della Battaglia, Italy. The blacksmith didn’t have time to help, so Bruno taught himself how to weld and turned his idea into a reality.

In the beginning he started by making small rides. His first big creation was the iron slide. “There were not many strange rides like that,” he explained. Bruno continued to add rides until he had a full-blown amusement park.

The collection of photos above, taken by Oriol Ferrer Mesia, showcases some of the restaurant’s unique rides.

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