Copenhagen - Nyhavn and around Travel Guides | Copenhagen | Sub Regions | Copenhagen - Nyhavn and around

This area has a twin appeal, catering to hedonists and consumers as well as museum lovers and successfully managing to do both in the unique Museum Erotica. Prestigious stores are to be found along Østergade, where Strøget begins its long, shop-laden route to Rådhuspladsen, and the network of small streets that lie to the north of Østergade are filled with specialty stores and restaurants. A more populist atmosphere characterizes the sunny side of Nyhavn, facing the eponymous canal, where a cluster of eateries draws in crowds of sightseers. Then again, around the corner from Nyhavn on stately Bredgade, the mood abruptly changes once again amidst the many reminders of inherited affluence. Known as Frederiksstaden, after King Frederick V who laid out the area in the mid-18th century, this end of the city has more than a fair share of palaces and churches plus some absorbing museums and the remains of an old fortress, the Kastellet. To the west of Frederiksstaden lies another royal area, this one owing its existence to Christian IV, who in the 16th century built his own castle and grounds, the much-visited Rosenborg Slot. Encompassing Renaissance art and contemporary porn videos, the Nyhavn and area around it is a mixed kettle of fish and all the more engaging because of this.

Sights

Buses 1, 6, 9, 10, 19, 29, 31, 32, 42, 43, 350S, 650S to Kongens Nytorv. Harbour buses 901, 902. Metro Kongens Nytorv.

A canal goes down the middle, but it is only the north side of Nyhavn that has been given a Dutch makeover, transforming the restored house-fronts with an ebullient mix of colours that helps encourage gaggles of visitors to sit on the quayside and soak up the sun with their backs to a line of small boats. By walking to the end of the street, where the canal meets the open sea, it is just about possible to sense the salty ghost of Nyhavn’s maritime past, for up until the end of the 1970s this area was still a sailors’ hangout with a decidedly sleazy tone. At the other end of the canal, the huge anchor is a memorial to Danish seamen who died during the Second World War, and on the nearby corner of Nyhavn and Bredgade stands the Amber Museum. There are interesting displays of amber embedded with insects and plants from the geological past, and a shop retailing amber-related jewellery and gifts. DFDS Canal Tours depart from this end of Nyhavn.

Kongens Nytorv, the large square at the closed end of Nyhavn canal and where Strøget and other important streets converge, was renowned for its beautiful elm trees until they succumbed to Dutch elm disease a few years back. Each June the square still hosts the dancing of high school students around the statue of another dead white male called Christian (this time in Roman garb and helmet), to celebrate the passing of their final exams, and in winter a free skating rink of artificial ice is built on the square. On a cloudy, humourless day, Kongens Nytorv can resemble a public square in Ceausescu-era Bucharest due to its size and the lumbering presence of haughty edifices like the Hôtel d’Angleterre and Det Kongelige Teater (the Royal Theatre), but when the sun is out and the cafés are busy serving tired shoppers the space lightens up and it’s fun to just sit and people-watch.

The Renaissance-style theatre from the 1870s dominates the physical space and culturally it packs quite a hefty punch too, combining performances of ballet, opera and drama under the one roof, The Dutch baroque building next to the theatre is Charlottenborg Palace, http://www.charlottenborg-art.dk, 1000-1700, 20kr, once a royal abode and now home to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. It is worth a quick gander to admire the courtly interior. Art exhibitions are held in a building to the rear of the Charlottenborg Palace.

Østergade, beginning at Kongens Nytorv and ending when it runs into Amagertorv at the junction with Købmagergade, is the beginning of Strøget . Købmagergade, also pedestrianized, is fairly indistinguishable from Strøget in its pretension to quality shopping, but the two stores with a genuine claim to fame are both on Østergade: Illum and Bang og Olufsen . Across the street from Illum, it is only a few steps to Højbro Plads and its landmark statue of Bishop Absalon Østergade’s name (East Street) harks back to the Middle Ages when the city eastern gate was situated here, and like other sections of Strøget its medieval origins are revealed in the slight curvature of the street.

Købmagergade 24, T 33120311, http://www.museumerotica.dk May-Sep, 1000-2300, Oct-Apr, 1100-2000. Adults 69kr. Buses 31, 42, 43. S-Tog and Metro, Nørreport or Kongens Nytorv.

Not the kind of sleazy sin-bin a sex museum could so easily masquerade as, Museum Erotica offers a spanking good time as it romps through history from Etruscan and ancient Greek times, India and the Orient, and up to modern times with displays on 1950s America and a chronicle of prostitution in Copenhagen. The visual images are not especially titillating, though the occasionally acrobatic one is more arresting, and the Shock Room has contemporary sex videos. Women, apparently, make up half the number of visitors but the choice of videos in the Shock Room is a disappointment in this respect.

Bredgade 68, T 33185656, http://www.kunstindustrimuseet.dk Permanent collections Tue-Fri 1300-1600, Sat-Sun 1200-1600. Special exhibitions Tue-Fri 1000-1600, Sat-Sun 1200-1600. Adults 35kr, children free. Buses 1, 6, 9, 29. Harbour Buses 901, 902 to Nordre Toldbod. S-Tog, Østerport. Metro Kongens Nytorv.

The permanent collections at the Danish Museum of Decorative Art cover the period from the Middle Ages to 1800 and there are excellent displays of furniture, silverware, ceramics and the like. The Japanese and Chinese collections are especially superb with some exquisite Renaissance, Baroque and rococo exhibits. Special exhibitions tend to focus on Danish design and crafts of the 20th century and there should be something of interest on display at the time of your visit. Recent displays have covered Nordic jewellery, modern glassware, photography, textiles, and the work of individual artists from around the world. The museum building was originally a hospital founded in the 18th-century and a plaque in the old hospital garden records the death of Kierkegaard here in 1855. There is Danish designer furniture in the delightful café on the premises, and in the summer there is nothing more cultured than taking tea outside in the peaceful courtyard.

If the time available for appreciating fine arts and antiques is precious, don’t be distracted by Rosenborg Slot but head for Kunstindustrimuseet instead.

Frederiksgade 4, T 33150144. Mon-Thu 1000-1700, Fri-Sun 1200-1700. Dome, Mid-Jun-Aug 1300 and 1500, Sep-mid-June, Sat-Sun 1300 and 1500. Free, dome 20kr. Buses 1, 6, 9, 29. S-Tog, Østerport. Metro, Kongens Nytorv.

The delights of Copenhagen are invariably tucked away behind modestly small doors so there is something immediately suspicious, confirmed when you step inside, about the jaw- dropping pomp and glory of the Marble Church’s exterior. Designed to out-do St Peter’s in Rome, the church was built for nobility in the mid-18th century, but took well over a century to complete because of soaring costs. The soulless interior has little to recommend it other than providing a space for classical music concerts between October and Easter, and for access to the dome from where there are panoramic views across to Sweden.

The visual splendour of the Marble Church distracts attention from its close neighbour, a Russian Orthodox church, whose golden onion-shaped cupolas possess their own quieter charm.

Amalienborg, T 33122186, http://www.kulturnet.dk/homes/rosenb">http://www.kulturnet.dk/homes/rosenb Museum, May-Oct 1000-1800, Nov-Dec and Jan-Apr, Tue-Sun 1100-1800. Closed 19-26 Dec. Adults 40kr, children 10kr. Buses 1, 6, 9,10, 29, 650S. Metro, Kongens Nytorv.

Amalienborg consists of four palaces, home to Danish royalty since 1794, designed by the architect, Nicolai Eigtved, who was also responsible for the Marble Church. The four palaces, rococo monuments to state power, tend to exhibit the same coldness of spirit that characterizes the church, but the octagonal cobbled courtyard, around which they are situated, is a visitor-friendly place, and the colourful changing of the bearskin-garbed guards is a photogenic occasion.

A set of royal apartments constitute the museum, De Danske Kongers Kronologiske Samling, stuffed to the brim with fine carpets, embellished furniture, portraits of forgettable persons filling the walls, Fabergé objects and assorted trinkets. Unless specially drawn to exhibits of this kind, you may well find the nearby Medicinsk-Historisk Museum (Medical History Museum)  to be more interesting, and with the benefit of free admission. Five minutes away from Amalienborg, head back to Bredgade and turn right to find it on the next corner, in the direction of Kunstindustrimuseet.

When the queen is in residence in Amalienborg (look for a raised flag), the changing of the guard is accompanied by a military band.

Churchillparken, T 33137714, http://www.natmus.dk May-mid-Sep, Tue-Sat 1000-1600, Sun 1000-1700, Mid-Sep-Apr, Tue-Sat 1100-1500, Sun 1100-1600. Adults 30kr, children free. Wed, free. Free guided tours, Tue, Thu, Sun 1400. Buses 1, 6, 9, 19, 29. Harbour Buses 901, 902 to Nordre Toldbod. S-Tog, Østerport.

Nazi Germany invaded Denmark on 9 April 1940, wanting control of the country’s airfields to help establish naval bases in Norway, and the government accepted occupation in return for a pledge not to infringe Danish independence. The Resistance Museum tells the story of those who did not accept occupation, starting with socialist and communist groups in 1942, and leading to trade union activity that brought uprisings the following year and which led to martial law. An absorbing range of exhibits, with everything explained in English, range from a magnetic mine to an enigma machine, examples of home-made weapons, and one of the aluminium 5-øre coins introduced in 1941 that has a hammer marked over the 5 to turn it into the hammer and sickle of the USSR. Most poignant are the preserved execution stakes where 102 rebel Danes paid the ultimate price, and there is a good exhibition on how ordinary Danes saved the lives of 7,000 of their Jewish fellow citizens by spontaneously whisking them away to Sweden when news was leaked of their intended fate.

There is a good outdoor café with tables looking out on parkland and water.

Amaliegade. Buses 1, 6, 9,19, 29. Harbour Buses 901, 902 to Nordre Toldbod. S-Tog, Østerport.

From the Resistance Museum it is a short walk to St Alban’s Church and the adjoining Gefion Springvandet, an extraordinary statue that compares with the one of Frederik V in Amalienborg for sheer size. It was built in the first decade of the 20th century by Anders Bundgaard thanks to the largesse of the Carlsberg Foundation. In Nordic mythology, a king of Sweden promised the goddess Gefion the possession of as much land as she could plough in a night. What he didn’t allow for was Gefion’s ability to transform her four sons into oxen, who between them carved out a land mass that was hurled into the sea to form Danish Zealand. The statue is certainly eye-catching, adding to the mystery of how on earth the miniscule Den Lille Havfrue (the Little Mermaid) managed to upstage it.

Langelinie. Buses 1, 6, 9. Harbour Buses 901, 902 to Nordre Toldbod. S-Tog, Østerport.

The Little Mermaid is Copenhagen’s most recognizable media image but seeing it for real can be a let down – the only thing that is striking about it is its inconsequentiality. Cynics think this goes a long way towards explaining why it has been vandalized three times, plus two decapitations (a third attempt never succeeded but it suffered an amputation). The bronze figure was commissioned by Carl Jacobsen, the beer magnate, in 1909 after he was moved by a performance of an opera based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story of a mermaid who fell in love with a human prince. A  com- pulsory stop on most guided tours of the city, and with cruise vessels berthing up the road at Langelinie Pier, the unprepossessing statue perched on a granite boulder attracts an unwarranted amount of attention – but you may still feel you have to see it for yourself. Around 1800 on the evening before 1 May, Finns in Denmark cap the mermaid to celebrate the arrival of spring and sell a special drink called Vappu.

Øster Voldgade, T 33153286, http://www.kulturnet.dk/homes/rosenb">http://www.kulturnet.dk/homes/rosenb Jun-Aug 1000-1700, Sep and May 1000-1600, Oct 1100-1500, Nov-Apr Tue-Sun 1100-1400. Adults 60kr, children 10kr. The free plan gives a bare description, but the 25kr-guide is needed to properly sort out what’s what amongst all the clutter. Buses 5, 10, 14, 16, 31, 42, 43. S-Tog and Metro, Nørreport.

The castle was originally built in 1606 as a country residence for Christian IV, and over the following 30 years developed into the

Dutch Renaissance castle that you see today. Always the favourite abode of Christian IV, he chose to die here and arrived outside at the moat in the middle of winter, having been carried by sleigh from Frederiksborg. In the years before his death, though, Christian filled his toy castle with a vast assortment of art and non-art, so much so that the love of minimalism amongst Danes might make sense as a healthy reaction to such pathological excess. To be fair, the kings that came after Christian added their own loot, and the final result is a surfeit of Flemish tapestries, furniture (lacquered, mahogany, silver), chandeliers, gilded bronze, glass and porcelain cabinets, jewel boxes, writing tables, mirrors, marble busts, paintings by the score (bare breasts and bums are a favourite subject on the ground floor ceiling), couches, clocks, toys, jewellery, cameos, beakers, swords, guns... The basement treasury is chock-full of jewel boxes, forks and spoons, snuff boxes and trinkets all in gold and all taking second place to the Sword of State and the crown jewels.

May-Aug 0700-2200, Apr and Sep 0700-2100, Feb-mid-Mar and Oct 0700-1800, mid-Mar-end-Mar 0700-2000, Nov-Jan 0700-1700. Hercules Pavilion, May-Oct 1000-2000. Buses 5, 10, 14, 16, 31, 42, 43. S-Tog and Metro, Nørreport.

At weekends and whenever the sun is out, the spacious grounds of Rosenborg Royal Gardens are deservedly popular with Copen- hageners. Planned in Renaissance style at the same time as Rosenborg Slot, while also functioning as the castle’s vegetable gardens, a stroll or a picnic here makes an exhilarating change after trawling through the cavernous gloom of the castle’s interior. Tidy to the point of being manicured, there are diverting statues to ponder over and a restored Renaissance garden with a summer- house and historical roses. The imaginative playground will appeal to children and the 18th-century Hercules Pavilion has a good café serving refreshments and light meals.

Kronprinsessegade 30, T 33734949. Thu-Sun and Tue 1300-1600, Wed 1000-1600. Free. Buses 10, 43. S-Tog and Metro, Nørreport.

Davids was a private Danish collector, he died in 1960, and his possessions are now open to the public in the house where he lived. Most of what you see on the lower floors is a fairly unexciting selection of fine arts from Denmark, France and England, but if you work your way past the Chippendale, silverware and porcelain there is ample reward in the collection of Islamic art on the fourth floor. This is the largest such collection in Scandinavia and there are superb examples of glassware, textiles, ceramics and jewellery, as well as a large collection of holy texts from the last seven centuries.

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