| Copenhagen (København) is Scandinavia's most vibrant and affordable
capital, and one of Europe's most user-friendly cities. Small and
welcoming, it's a place where people rather than cars set the pace, as
evidenced by the multitude of pavement cafés and the number of
thoroughfares that have been given over to pedestrians and bicycles.
Amenable and relaxed, it also offers a range of entertainment which
belies its relatively modest size: at night there are plenty of cosy
bars and an intimate club and live-music network that could hardly be
bettered, while in summer, especially, there's a varied range of
entertainment as the city's population takes to the streets. This is not
to mention a beckoning range of cultural attractions, including major
national museums, a selection of magical art galleries, a healthy
assortment of performing arts events and one of Europe's most
interesting film scenes.
Physically, much of Copenhagen dates from the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, a cultured ensemble of handsome renaissance palaces, parks
and merchant houses laid out around the waterways and canals that give
the city, in places, a pronounced Dutch flavour. Successive Danish
monarchs left their mark on the place, in particular Christian IV,
creator of many of the city's most striking landmarks - including
Rosenborg Slot and the districts of Nyboder and Christianshavn - and
Frederik III, who graced the city with the palaces of Amalienborg and
the grandiose Marmorkirke church, along with the elegant royal quarter
of Frederikstad in which they are located. These landmarks remain the
highest points in a refreshingly low and undeveloped skyline which
continues to measure things on an emphatically human scale.
Historically, Copenhagen owes its existence to its position on the
narrow Øresund strait separating Denmark from Sweden and commanding the
entrance to the Baltic - one of the great trading routes of medieval
Europe and now the site of the region's grandest engineering project,
the massive Øresund Bridge. It's this location, poised on the dividing
line between Europe and Scandinavia, that continues to give Copenhagen
its distinctive character. Compared to the relatively staid capitals
further north, Copenhagen has a decidedly European flavour, from the
innocent hedonism of the famous Tivoli gardens to the sleazy goings-on
around Vesterbro's red-light district. It's no surprise that the city's
most famous export is a beer, Carlsberg, and the freedom with which it
flows in the city's thousands of bars is in stark contrast to the
puritanical licensing laws found elsewhere in Scandinavia - a fact
attested to by the thousands of thirsty Swedes who descend on the city
each year. Yet Copenhagen is also a flagship example of the Scandinavian
commitment to liberal social values, as exemplified by its laid-back
attitudes to everything from gay marriages to toplessness and
pornography, and is also home to the unique "Free City" of Christiania,
whose drop-out community is one of Europe's most intriguing social
experiments.
For all its twentieth-century success, however, the new millennium finds
Copenhagen facing an important set of changes and challenges. On the one
hand, the magnificent new Øresund Bridge, opened in 2000 to link the
city with Malmö and southern Sweden, has given Copenhagen the
infrastructure to become the western Baltic's leading urban centre, and
there are many who would like to see the city develop into a suitably
internationalist and forward-looking metropolis. On the other hand,
there are many Copenhageners who regard the bridge, at best, as an
irrelevance or, at worst, as a symbol of all those foreign influences
that threaten to undermine traditional Danish values. Above all, these
influences are typified by Copenhagen's burgeoning immigrant community,
and simmering racial tensions - and the resulting rising power of the
right wing - pose increasing challenges to the city's tolerant image. At
the same time, Denmark's landmark decision in a referendum of October
2000 to opt out of the single European currency also suggests a national
desire to remain isolated from the continental mainstream, with the
possible result that Copenhagen will be relegated to a position of
provincial irrelevance. For all that, it's worth remembering that the
city's occasional smugness and resistance to change is the result of its
citizens' pride in their capital and determination to protect its unique
character, and as a visitor you'll be made to feel welcome wherever you
go, especially since absolutely everybody speaks English.
Copenhagen, as any Dane will tell you, is no introduction to Denmark -
indeed a greater contrast with the sleepy provincialism of the rest of
the country would be hard to find. Thanks to the rapid transport links
which connect the capital with its surrounding countryside, however, you
can enjoy all the pleasures of rural Zealand without ever being much
more than an hour away from the bright lights of the capital. Amongst
the many attractions which ring the city are the great castles of
Kronborg (the "Elsinore Castle" of Shakespeare's Hamlet ) and
Frederiksborg , while the ancient Danish capital and ecclesiastical
centre of Roskilde , with its magnificent cathedral and museum of Viking
ships, offers another enticing day-trip.
The City
Copenhagen is one of Europe's most manageable capitals: it takes just
thirty minutes to walk across the compact centre, and the wealth of
green spaces and pedestrianized areas makes exploring the city a relaxed
and thoroughly civilized experience. The historic core of the city is
the small district of Slotsholmen , originally the site of the twelfth-century
castle from which Copenhagen derived its earliest wealth and now home to
the city's highest concentration of historic buildings, foremost among
them the huge royal and governmental complex of Christiansborg. Facing
Slotsholmen over the Slotsholmen Kanal is the medieval maze of Indre By
, the bustling heart of the modern city, traversed by Strøget, the
world's longest pedestrianized street, and packed with an abundance of
swish cafés, shops and bars, and an eclectic clutch of museums and
churches. On the opposite side of Slotsholmen from Indre By, the island
of Christianshavn - popularly known as "Little Amsterdam" on account of
its Dutch-style canals and gabled houses - was built on reclaimed land
in the seventeenth century. It's now one of the inner city's most
relaxed and bohemian areas, and is also home to the "free city" of
Christiania, Copenhagen's famous alternative-lifestyle community.
Northeast of Indre By, the fairy-tale palace of Rosenborg , one of
several royal residences in the city, sits at the heart of the inner
city's greenest area, with the immaculate lawns of Kongens Have and the
lush greenhouses of the Botanisk Have close by. Abutting Kongens Have
are the wide, aristocratic streets of Frederikstad , Frederik V's royal
quarter, dominated by the huge dome of the Marmorkirke church and
centred on the royal palaces of Amalienborg, while just to the north are
the green ramparts of Kastellet , Europe's oldest working military fort.
Back across Indre By to the south is the city's transport and
entertainment hub, grouped around the famous Tivoli pleasure gardens,
close to both the city's main transport terminus, Central Station, and
its main square, Rådhuspladsen.
Ringing the centre are a series of distinctive and contrasting inner-city
areas: to the west, down-at-heel, multicultural Vesterbro , home to the
city's red-light district, next to the genteel, villa-lined streets of
Frederiksberg , where you'll also find another royal palace,
Frederiksberg Slot, and the city's zoo. To the north is the formerly
working-class but increasingly gentrified district of Nørrebro , centred
on the trendy bars and restaurants of Skt Hans Torv and Blågårdsgade.
East of Nørrebro, snooty Østerbro is home to Copenhagen's old money, as
well as the national football stadium Parken and the city centre's
largest open space, Fælled Park.
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All Danish telephone numbers have eight digits - there are no separate
area codes. To call Copenhagen from abroad, dial the international
access code, followed by the Danish country code (45) and the
subscriber's number.
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