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

Before mid-morning you can have the wide open space of Rådhuspladsen almost to yourself, with only the gentle buzz of commuters flowing around you on foot, bike or car, and the late 19th and early 20th-century buildings looking down on you. This is an ideal time to explore the city’s main public square before nearby Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, a major cultural attraction, opens its door. The most hyped street in Copenhagen, Strøget, begins to hum with consumers from late morning onwards and by lunchtime its open-air cafés, restaurants and cobbled squares are heaving with people and street performers. Discerning travellers ignore the crowds and head off to explore the more interesting shops that are tucked away down the narrow side streets. This is where the Copenhagen of medieval times developed, but for a more tangible feel of the past move on a few centuries and delve about in the streets around the university and some grand 19th-century churches. The university building on Frue Plads is worth a look and, even though most academic departments have moved out from here, there is a studious feel to this part of town and the atmosphere is pleasantly calm. For more bustle, head back to Rådhuspladsen in the evening and the twinkly lights of Tivoli.

Sights

Dantes Plads 7, T 33418141, http://www.glyptoteket.dk Tue-Sun 1000- 1600. Adults 30kr, children free. Sun and Wed free. Buses 1, 10, 28, 550S, 650S, and those stopping at Rådhuspladsen.

Architecturally grand both inside and out, especially with the 1996 gallery designed by Henning Larsen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is one of the city’s must-see places of culture. Founded by Carl Jacobsen and named after his brewery, Glyptotek (sculpture collection) was added a little misleadingly given that the beer magnate was an equally avid collector of French and Danish art. Like other world-class museums, there is too much to take in on a single visit and a return trip is worth considering. On a first visit it may be worth opting for either the extensive ancient Near East and Mediterranean collections or the 19th-century French paintings; or make a judicious choice from the many rooms of ancient art before heading for the modern collections. Also bear in mind that the small but superb collection of Archaic and Classical Greek pottery is located downstairs as part of the Etruscan collection, in room 20, because they happened to be found in Italy. To make a beeline for the renowned French art, after entering the Winter Garden do not go up the steps on the far side but turn to the left just before them and pass through the glass doors. This leads to the sparkling new wing of the museum and the Impressionists are in rooms 61/2 – Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas and Cézanne – and to Gauguin and his Tahitian girls, van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec in rooms 63-6. (Gauguin lived in Copenhagen for a time.) You are not likely to forget the magnificent glass-domed and tiled Winter Garden conservatory. There are benches amidst the giant palm trees, Roman sarcophagi and contemporary Danish sculptures. The café is also a treat.

The 2kr ground plan is worth having, but the really useful subject catalogues in the bookshop are pricey at around 160kr each. Laminated cards highlighting exhibits are freely available in only some of the rooms, but quite a lot of the exhibits are poorly labelled and inadequately described.

Vesterbrogade 3, T 33151001, http://www.tivoligardens.com 19 Apr- 22 Sep Mon-Thu, Sun 1100-2400, Fri-Sat 1100-0100, 15 Dec-23 Dec Mon-Wed, Sun 1100-2100, Thu-Sat 1100-2200. Adults 55kr, children 30. Buses 1, 2, 6, 8, 10-16, 28-30, 34, 40, 67-69, 150S, 550S, 650S.

The Tivoli amusement park, the most visited attraction in Denmark let alone Copenhagen, first opened its pleasure gardens in 1843, and when it was put up for sale in 1999 the hullabaloo that followed ensured it was kept in Danish hands. Tivoli is a national institution (most visitors are Danes) and a visit seems almost obligatory but, unless young children are in tow, it is hugely overrated and best enjoyed as a shrine to cuteness, especially on Saturday and Sunday evenings at 1730 and 1930 when a parade of mock-toy soldiers – the Tivoli Boys Guard – and gilded carriages wind their way through the crowds. The tweeness of Tivoli encourages Disneyfication, helped by the likes of Sting, Phil Collins and the Beach Boys appearing on stage, but a glimmer of the original Orient-inspired magic still pervades the place when twilight descends and neon-less, muted lighting illuminates the Turkish facade of Restaurant Nimb outside the silent fountain inspired by the concepts of Niels Bohr, the Danish winner of the Nobel Prize for physics. The Chinese-style Pantomime Theatre plays host to a genuine ghost of commedia dell’arte, there is an ancient rollercoaster and smaller echoes of times past that are worth seeking out, like the 1949 spiral lamp of the designer Poul Henningsen near Tivoli Lake. Henningsen contributed much to the rebuilding of Tivoli after the Second World War and his stunning Glassalen (The Glass Hall), with its hint of camp, should not be missed (from the entrance opposite Central Station, keep straight ahead, crossing the seating area of the open-air stage). Tivoli Lake, especially attractive when the flower borders are in full bloom and the light-filled dragonflies are switched on, is another piece of history; surviving from the 1840s when the park lay outside the city’s boundaries and made use of the original moat that once fortified Copenhagen.

There are nearly 40 places serving food, ice cream and sweet pastries in Tivoli, more or less all overpriced, ranging from fast food outlets to superior fish restaurants like La Crevette . In summer time, at 2345 on Wednesday and Saturday nights, there is a firework display.

Rådhuspladsen, T 33662582, http://www.copenhagencity.dk Mon-Fri 0800-1700, Sat 0930-1300. Free. Guided tours Mon-Fri 1500, Sat 1000 and 1100. Adults 30kr. City Hall Tower Jun-Sep Mon-Fri 1000, 1200, 1400, Sat 1200. Oct-May Mon-Sat 1200. Adults 20kr. Jens Olsen’s World Clock Mon-Fri 1000-1600, Sat 1000-1300. Adults 10kr, children 5kr. Buses 2, 6, 8, 11, 14, 16, 28, 29, 30, 34, 67, 68, 69, 173E, 150S, 250S.

Copenhagen’s Town Hall, built between 1892 and 1905 and a de facto landmark building given its function and location, benefits from a flourish of architectural styles from the graceful to the whimsical. The predominately brown-brick exterior seems prosaic from a distance, but gazing up from outside the nondescript entrance, topped by a small balcony and a gilded statue of Bishop Absalon, brings into play a line of six carved figures standing alert. Smaller carvings are dotted about the exterior walls and as the eye takes them in a surreptitious playfulness becomes apparent in the design. This becomes more obvious once inside the building and you are free to wander about and spot the capricious decorative details on the brickwork and stonework, like the carved doves and beetles nonchalantly carved into a pillar on the first floor. Murals, mosaic floors and painted ceilings complete the visual feast.

The climb up the 105.6-m tower affords fine views but a visit to the highly complex Jens Olsen’s World Clock is definitely not for the horologically-challenged.

The statues around Rådhuset are worth checking out: Hans Christian Andersen is here of course, but more striking is the statue in front of it enacting an encounter between a mammal and a monster, in the centre of a fountain fed by the mouths of sinister sea creatures. On the other side of the square stands a pillar topped with a stone statue of two manly Vikings blowing those S-shaped horns called lurs . Facing this statue, on Vester Voldgade, is the refined-looking Palace Hotel, contemporaneous with Rådhuset and built to accommodate visiting burghers, but with a disappointing interior as a result of an unimaginative renovation. Next door, deflating the luxury hotel’s pretensions, is the anodyne Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum . What is worth noting is back across the square where, literally on the corner of Vesterbrogade on the building with the Philips flag, the day’s temperature is recorded with the aid of a golden girl, a bicycle and an umbrella. Also here, on HC Andersens Boulevard, is the Louis Tussaud’s Wax Museum, as interesting for its 1897 building as for the wax effigies standing about inside.

HC Andersens Boulevard 27, T 33693369, http://www.ddc.dk Mon-Fri 1000-1700, Sat-Sun 1130-1600. Adults 30kr, children 15kr. Buses 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 28-30, 32, 33, 550S, 650S.

The value of a visit here depends a lot on the quality of the temporary exhibitions being mounted. In 2002 there was a celebrated exhibition marking the centenary of Arne Jacobsen’s birth, plus the work of Japanese paper designers, and there should always be two or three new shows taking place. Downstairs, there is a permanent display of winners of the Industrial Design Prize between 1965-99 (now replaced by the Danish Design Prize), featuring Lego, early typewriters, cash registers, vacuum cleaners, industrial suits, telephones, the LP cover of the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and lots more. There is a great shop and a café that serves pleasant lunches. Henning Larsen designed the centre but not all of his ideas for the building were brought to fruition, as information panels near the entrance explain.

Strøget (pronounced ‘stroll’), referred to as ‘the walking street’, is the collective name for a series of linked pedestrianized streets – Frederiksbergade, Nygade, Vimmelskafet, Amagertorv and Østergade – and much hyped as a grand shopping experience. Don’t believe it, for with a few noted exceptions like Illums Bolighus, Holmegaard, Georg Jensen, and Royal Copen- hagen on Amagertorv, and a couple on Østergade at the upper end of Strøget, this street’s shopping is mostly spoilt by irksome international brand names. What does make all of Strøget tick, though, is the human traffic – especially around the adjoining squares of Gammeltorv and Nytorv (‘old square’ and ‘new square’) that Strøget bisects just a couple of blocks up from Rådhuspladsen. Gammeltorv is distinguished by the Caritas Fountain, a highly attractive piece of Renaissance art (1608), rebuilt at the end of the nineteenth century, depicting Charity as a woman with water from her breasts sprinkling over two children. The contrasting attraction in Nytorv is the severe-looking Domhuset (Courthouse) fronted by neoclassical columns that suggest anything but charity. The building was the city’s town hall as well as courthouse, until 1905 when Rådhuset was completed, opening in 1815 on the site of the first town hall that had divided the two squares. The building in Nytorv that is now a bank occupies the ground of a house where Kierkegaard once lived, while Gammeltorv covers the ground of Copenhagen’s medieval marketplace.

Don’t get fooled. Good shopping is not the same as good advertising, so forget Lower Strøget and explore instead parallel Vestergade and the smaller streets running off it.

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