Royal Denmark

Posts Tagged ‘Copenhagen’

Copenhagen is by now well known and notorious as a very expensive city to visit – and rightly so. Especially overnight stays can be hard on the budget, although there is no shortage of opportunities in Copenhagen. Therefore, the Guardian found the best budget hotels, while still being well positioned. Be inspired by your choice of budget hotel in Copenhagen in the list below. Read the rest of this entry »

World cultural city, Copenhagen is situated to the east of Denmark on the island of Zealand. Is a tourist destination and is the Danish capital.

Historical center of commerce and economic development, cosmopolitan Copenhagen has a population of over a million and a half, can easily be explored on foot and it’s as safe and welcoming to the thousands of tourists who visit in all seasons.

Quaint old buildings are mixed in a well populated landscape of skyscrapers and modern buildings. The coexistence of old and new gives the city a touch of harmony and singularity. Its cultural richness makes it a sophisticated center with various attractions for all tastes. Its main pedestrian shopping street par excellence called Strøget and is the birthplace of Danish design and good taste.

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The Little Mermaid is a symbol of the Danish city. Is a sculpture located in the Park rocks Langelinie bayside port of Copenhagen.

This is a cast bronze sculpture made ​​of about 1.25 meters tall and weighs about 180 kilograms.

Was opened and located in the park in August 1913. Made by the famous Danish sculptor Edgar Eriksen who was inspired by the book The Little Mermaid written by Hans Christian Andersen. The sculptor asked the model for such work is the famous Danish dancer Ellen Price that she posed nude, but Edgar did not take the job had to use his wife as a model.

During his stay in the park Langelinie the important sculpture suffered numerous attacks. One of the most important was when he planted explosives leaving very deteriorated, too, some time has been mutilated and even painted.

No doubt that the Little Mermaid has had a major impact on the country, is today the most visited by tourists in the country even before the Royal Palace. Every tourist who visits Copenhagen there will not be without at least get a picture of the large sculpture, others encourage a little more and come to take pictures next to the Little Mermaid.

Today, is a symbol not only of the city but the country.

Christiania may not be the most tourist place in Denmark but what hides is historically significant. Because this site is only partially self-governing area of Copenhagen, the capital of the country, which is why it is called “Free City of Christiania. ”

The story begins in 1967 cuadno a group of people settled in an abandoned military base. The police tried to clear the area but failed to this point because the population had grown greatly. Today is a sort of anarchist hippie neighborhood that can be visited but there are always police guarding the area. It occupies about 24 hectares in the district of Christianshavn and has about 850 residents.

There you can find its own power plant, theaters, cafes, markets, etc. but what is striking is that no cars are allowed and there is so many bicycles.

It is likely that this information will please those who like to do something exotic tours during your vacation . We’ve talked about the Museum of madness and now it’s up to get into another course without precedent: the museum of curiosities.

This area is located in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark, and has a long history since it was founded in 1648 by King Frederick III. Located in the Castle of Copenhagen, offers a variety of objects of interest, usually strange and unusual that they have come from different places, brought by navigators, cartographers, explorers and scientists.

While for some it is the museum with the world’s rarest collection, for others it is an ideal place to observe rare objects. At the time of Frederick III, the museum had several sections such as “medals”, “exotic animals”, “East” or “America. ” Then in 1892 he joined the National Museum of Denmark and today has 122 pieces of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as part of the old collection. But that’s not all because over the years has added more and more objects like a necklace that belonged to James Cook, a shirt of the Indians of the plains or sunglasses in Greenland. One of the most visited rooms is the Wunderkammern (the “chamber of wonders”), which displays the objects in a theatrical way to highlight its wonderful character.

It’s funny but many of the most charming cities have been curiously dark and poor, far from the glamor and elegance today. This is the case of the Port of Nyhavn one of the most picturesque of the city of Copenhagen.

In this area of the city today we can find an attractive architecture dominated by a set of colored houses that look out on both sides of Copenhagen’s most famous canal. Far from the ostracism, these homes peacefully coexist in a cluster of shops, cafes and restaurants that set the pace of the port.

Nyhavn charm lies precisely in the cultural and social movement that has been installed in this lovely part of town, a place that, oddly, was once inhabited by unemployed sailors, prostitutes and drunks.

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You do not have the mystique of the Port of Nyhavn but it is one of the most famous monuments of the city of Copenhagen, although it is a discrete work looms on the horizon.

I do not speak other than from The Little Mermaid, a famous statue that rests on the bay of the port that looks to the Baltic Sea. The history of this work was born from a legend that the songs of the sirens bewitched seamen. A local fisherman fell in love with a mermaid and she chose to give up immortality to be identifiable as women and thus win the love of man.

Inspired by this story, in 1913, the brewing magnate Carl Jacobsen asked a sculptor to design a statue shaped like a mermaid. Since then, his twenty-five meters high and on a rock resting and The Little Mermaid has become a must for sailors who come to the city.

Third of our first section on the history, where we had stayed at the important contribution of King Christian IV to the growth of this city with the construction of various infrastructures among which the great buildings that were commissioned from German and Dutch architects so that the city won more international prestige.
And thanks to their efforts, when he died in 1648, the city had become an important commercial center of northern Europe and the principal fortification and naval port turn around the country, which had taken a long time but thanks to perseverance and hard work of its citizens came to get.

Between 1658 and 1659, the city came under attack from the Swedes led by Gustaf of Sweden and later in 1700 another attack, just a bombing, but the city suffered damage worth mentioning, but the worst would come eleven years after. Plague has killed at least one third of the population, which dwindled to some extent the development of the city.

Pictorial recreation of the battle

But the misfortunes would continue to prey upon the city and one third of the city would be seriously affected by the great fire of 1728 and where more than 1600 homes and 5 churches were completely reduced to ashes.

Eventually everything was back to normal and even during the last years of the eighteenth century the wealth generated by the important local trade reached its highest level, but in 1795 another fire again be left homeless more than 3500 people, but none became homeless because the crown itself paid the reconstruction and it was not long until all stand again.

The naval battle against the British army

And in 1801 came the first battle against a British fleet commanded by Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and, at that time, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, in order to prevent the surrender of the Danish fleet to Napoleon. The contest continued in 1807 when a British force besieged the city for three days bombarding and causing extensive damage.

And we are here in this third installment on the history of the city. Little by little we are getting closer to more recent times but there are still things to note in the history of this beautiful city.

Like many cities at that time, and following centuries, the city was surrounded and besieged on several occasions, like other towns in what is known as Hanseatic League (the countries of that part of Europe with significant business dealings.) But sometimes infighting played a major role in the development of the city, which is now part of history.

At first the Danish king tried to rule the city against what he said the bishop, and finally succeeded in the year 1416, when Erik of Pomerania was getting control of the city and since then belongs to the Crown Copenhagen Denmark.

Portrait of Erik of Pomerania

Thanks to the exceptional good traders and treated, the city continued growing and becoming more and richer, which attracted more traders from other countries and began to establish various guilds, which highlighted the craft and if there is something peculiar at that time was the founding of the University of Copenhagen in 1479.

The city continued to grow rapidly, not only in size but also in wealth and military power, became an important strategic location and economic center, military, religious and cultural life of the entire Nordic region.

One of the most important steps that gave the city for its growth was the granting of rights to companies to have the exclusive right to trade with different countries overseas. And in order to restrict imports, many factories were created so that the country could meet its own demand and thus minimizing the dependence on third parties.

Equestrian statue of King Christian IV

All thanks to King Christian IV, who extended the town with two new districts, New Booths, a place for the soldiers of the army and the Chsistianshavn following the model of the city of Amsterdam. This growth of the city was linked to various fortifications and bastions that increased security in the city.

This completes again this second installment on the history of Copenhagen and gradually we will go closer to the present to know how this destination today, but we still have to know, so you are invited to continue with us .

We continue our travels tireless anxious to know the best places for a good holiday season. The destination that will occupy the next few days will keep us in the old continent, but in a less benign latitude Portugal, climatologically speaking, but not detract from this fate.

We go to Denmark to meet its capital, Copenhagen. A place in the most important point between the Baltic Sea and its northern neighbor, Germany. What makes this city is an important part of national trade and where the cash economy has always been one of its main hubs.

One of the port areas of the city

The first settlements in this area date back to 4000 BC permanent settlements but discarded those years, suggesting that this area was the way, possibly by the peoples of eastern and northern Europe to other places.

It is believed that the first city was built in the eleventh century and had two settlements, one in the west and a smaller one. Back in 1100 the town was fortified and made more importance than other places in this latitude, thanks to its convenient location and strength, something only the rich cities have or had something to defend.

About the year 1290 and well into the nineteenth century all traffic in and out had to do it using one of the four gates of this wall, so he held a tight control over all economic activity in the city.

A quieter, Stevns Klint

But it was not the only, there were several walled cities, but they were walls made of earth and palisades. Some had some pit, and it may seem otherwise, Copenhagen was not the first city to have strong walls but was Kalundborg, which had in addition to wall with several towers as would happen later with the destination in question.

And with this first post short history we said goodbye to our second installment, where we will know more about the history of this fantastic place these days with us.