Hi beautiful people, Hope you all are enjoying the sun and playing outside all day long 😊 I'm looking for fun facts & mildly crazy stories about Copenhagen. Something along the lines of this ancient law that allows you to murder Swedes with axes 🪓 if they cross the frozen øresund (I hope I remember that one correctly). Anyone has any fun facts about the city? 👀
I was so intrigued stumbling across that for the first time during one of my COVID walks.
Same haha
Ive visited that a lot, and always thought it made less sense, than it would, had they switched around the b. and d. years
Maybe we’re the time travelers
Stairs leading to basements must have railings, because one of the Kings was annoyed of constantly failing down when he was drunk.
Another absolute monarch story: The railway from Cph going west through Valby towards Roskilde originally was a hill-y area, up and down. But one of the absolute monarchs demanded that they dig up and move those hills, as he preferred the newly invented train to go straight and flat.
So they had to dig kilometres worth of dirt away because the King said so. And now the train goes straight and there're some man-made hills somewhere along the railroad.
Not 100% sure of this story, but I did hear it from a history teacher.
There were hills in Zealand? ... And they took them away? 😭
Small hills, like less than 5 meters height. I think you can see a wall-like hill along the rail somewhere between Valby and Roskilde. Not completely sure.
The railway between Carlsberg and Valby is definitely in a kind of pretty deep "valley"
That sounds like a myth. Trains can't handle hills. Even a modest incline screws with the physics.
It's very possible that the king had the hills removed, or moved to somewhere else, but if so it wasn't because he had any kind of preference. It was because he wanted a rail line, and you have to do that.
The alternative would be to direct the rail around the hills. Not build the rail on top of it. And we're talking about small Danish hills, like less than 5 meters height.
It's a story I heard, I'm not sure.
Please explain to the Swiss, that trains can't handle hills.
Trains can handle hills much better now than they could in the days of steam engines. Especially early, less powerful engines. 4% grade isn't unheard of for high-speed these days. But steam engines had way worse adhesion due to fluctuating traction force, and early engines were pretty puny. It was really with electric and diesel engines with more drive wheels when trains got better at climbing grade.
So it would have made even more sense back then to flatten the grade. There were routes in the early, early days of steam engines that involves unhooking the carriages, and pulling them up a hill with a team of horses, then hooking back up to an engine and continuing.
Love it 🍻
In 1728 Copenhagen burned down to the ground in one of the city's worst fires ever.
Why did the whole city burn? They did have a fire brigade after all?
Several reasons, but one of them: The firemen were drunk because they were celebrating a succesful fire training exercise.
The exercise went well, the firemen got drunk, the real fire came, the whole town burned -- anyway, that's why there are very few buildings from before 1728 in Copenhagen.
I heard this story as a history student at Uni of Cph. More info: https://uniavisen.dk/en/university-of-copenhagen-history-the-fire-of-1728/
Love how so much of history is related to people being drunk 🫣
And to add a fun fact to the fire episode.
The reason why so many buildings in cph city center has the cut of corners were due to some experts meaning we should make more room for the firetrucks to drive around in a similar situation.
The regulations for chamfering/cut corners at intersections was due to yet another fire, in 1795! Mentioned in https://uniavisen.dk/en/copenhagen-burnt-down-3-times-in-80-years-it-was-not-all-bad/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Fire_of_1795#Consequences
And since that time it has been legal for students at Copenhagen University to carry rapiers in "Store Kannikestræde". (Apparently the students helped stop the fire)
Was that not only for students of Regensen? Or am I confusing two different pieces of information
That's possible, my sources are rather vague.
Many of those railings are shaped like griffins from classical mythology, who traditionally guard the entrance to the unknown and the underworld.
We have the oldest gay bar in the world: Centralhjørnet.
There is a shortcut: Kringlepassagen where the shoppingstreet; Strøget is connected to Gråbrødretorv (a place with restaurants)
Nice!
While not Copenhagenish specifically, King Christian IX, the first monarch of the current House of Glücksborg, became known as the ¨father-in-law of Europe¨ because all his kids married other European royalty. Thus, for example, King Frederik is distantly related to King Charles, among several other monarchs.
Yepp she pulled a queen Victoria. Children on the Danish, Greek, English and Russian thrones. Also a princess of Hannover. The grandson king of Norway. Only one of his 6 children ended up without a throne to sit on iirc.
🍆💦
His kids were (rightfully) assumed to be less inbred than the other royal houses, so they were rather sought-after
There is a polar bear statue on Langelinie commemorating polar explorations. It has a bullet wound under its ear. The story goes: during WW2 and German occupation a young soldier was patrolling the area and asked a figure in the fog to identify himself. When they didn’t, the soldier fired at them. It was a statue.
Big if true. Who can myth busters this?
Corners on older buildings aren't sharp due to the big fire back in the day and the firefighters couldn't get their vehicles through the narrow streets. So now they've been "rounded off" in case of future fires.
Fun fact, when the Swedes came for Denmark, they came from the west. They did indeed cross when the water froze, however it was Lillebælt that froze, not Øresund.
Related to that, I think there's a law allowing us to hit the seeded if they cross over the ice
Nah, that’s an urban myth.
As the other guy said, it's a myth. There was an interview with one of the few people in Denmark, who has been studying all the laws in the history of Denmark, and said that he'd never seen any law that was close to that myth.
How does one hit the seeded?
Due to the citizens of Copenhagen's resistance to the Swedish siege in 1660, the city was given special privilegies by the King. The king appointed 3-4 mayors and 8 councilmen. These were allowed to choose 32 citizens among to sit in "Borgerrepræsentationen". This lasted until 1840 where democratic elections became prevalent.
(It's worth noting that the citizens of Copenhagen manned 9 companies on the ramparts, but the majority of the fighting were done by dutch sailors or Danish soldiers).
The Øresund one is not real. We have a statue of princess Marie of Orleans, who founded the local volunteer firefighter department. She was a firefighter herself. She also had an anchor tattoo on her arm in support of the navy. Badass princess 💪
The oldest rollercoaster in Tivoli didn’t use to have safety guards, but after a (really drunk) Swede fell out of a wagon in one of the first corners (hereafter named the Swede’s corner), they were put in
The name Copenhagen in Danish København
It originates from the medieval ages and basically means "merchants harbor". It was given this name because of the impact merchants had on the city during that time.
Latin name was Hafnia and I think I've seen a map where the name was Hafn. But not quite sure about the last bit.
The element Hafnium (atomic number 72) was discovered in Copenhagen and was given the Latin name of the place of its discovery.
Started as Havn, then became København. I guess they just didn’t update the Latin name
Started as Hafn, then became Købmænnirhafn, which was contracted to København.
Students of Theology are/were allowed to carry a saber or fencer in the city center as they were often attacked and assaulted by drunk sailors. University students were usually from wealthy families and as such they were more posh (and absolutely unable to knuckle fight). Sailors were typically not your upscale citizens but they did like a good brawl - and picking on the pale, lanky kid with the snarky attitude has always been a good pastime for bullies. Hence, literate nerds were allowed to fend off their bullies with weapons.
Not so fun fact, but the foundation of the shed where people were executed post WWII - is still there along Voldene in Christianshavn ; https://da.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrettelsesskuret
The little mermaid only became that famous because she had her head stolen twice
And the guy doing it was a press journalist with shady morals chasing (and making) stories. He was the first to film it without the head and he still gets paid royalties with the pictures are used in stories about the beheading
Oh, interesting! I didn't know that
World oldest Tatoo store stays in Copenhagen, at Kongens Nytorv.
What’s the name of it?
There are giant pots with Magnolia grandiflora trees in one of the passages along Strøget, a species which is most famous and loved in the southern USA. I think it's quite cool you can find it here in the north too.
Also an area with cherry trees on Langelinie gifted by a Japanese baker. He learnt to bake bread in Denmark and made it BIG by opening a chain of bakeries in Japan.
One of the bars/clubs by the central station(Streckers - which is replaced by now) had a graveyard beneath it. Nobody knew until the recontruction and after partying for decades.
You could speculate that there is many more spread around, burried beneath the infrastructure of the city.
Copenhagen has the world’s longest operating tattoo salon- Nyhavn 17. One of the Danish kings (Frederik IX, the current kings grandfather) had 9 tattoos, some of which were made there.
There's a bronze replica of the Statue of David outside the Royal Cast Collection with a misspelled plaque, only found out about it when our boat tour guide pointed it out! Otherwise it's a really good replica 😄
💯 Amahzingg!
Danish pastry! Even if he originally came from the small danish island called “Læsø” the baker “L. C. Klitteng” was trained and worked several years in Copenhagen.
Once Copenhagen became too small, he went to USA from Denmark in December, 1915, and has been responsible for most of the popularity which Danish pastry has acquired here.
An additional fun facts might be that the product known to world as “Danish Pastry” in Denmark is called “Wienerbrød”. This directly translates to “bread of Wienna”. The reason is, that the recipie actually came to Copenhagen from Wienna, during the 1850 years, with the Austrian baker “Ernst Smidt”🤗🤗
Delicious 😋
The latest fortifications arround Copenhagen (Vestvolden) almost resulted in the destruction of the early Danish democracy. In the end the fortifications were build, and the constitution was revised to avoid another crisis.
How so?
I dont know if this helps, but one the explanation would take to long to write out, but here is a short article on the subject https://danmarkshistorien.dk/vis/materiale/provisorieaarene-1885-1894
Fascinating & spændende. Thanks for sharing 🙏
In one of the buildings along Nørre Voldgade, there's a cannonball lodged in the wall that faces out towards the street, a few meters above ground level.
I don't remember if the cannonball is from the Swedish bombardment in 1660 or the English bombardment in 1807.
Also, the street Stormgade in the inner city is named not for a weather phenomenon, but because that is the point where Sweden tried to take the city by storm in 1660.
Do you know where along Nørre Voldgade? Can't find it googling.
Edit: Ah, nevermind, I got it. It's on Øster Voldgade. Not Nørre Voldgade. In the wall of the lifeguard barracks just east of Nørreport.
To my knowledge there is no name for the river running through the city. Probably because it technically isn't a river but I always found that amusing.
Which river are we talking about?
There’s no river. There’s the lakes and the harbor. I guess the stream under Åboulevarden would count if it was ever opened again
Ladegårdsåen
Isn’t it just called København Kanal?
Well, if I understand you correctly, you could in fact say that the city is named after that not river :)
Christiania has its oddities:
If a the water is frozen all the way to Sweden and a swede walks over you are legally allowed to hit him with a stick
Nope it's a myth
1822: George Weyman begins producing Copenhagen Snuff in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
User deleted comment
13d
User deleted comment
13d
That's pretty racist if i wasn't Danish
Clown outside the circus.
Why? This is the best city I've ever been to
Highest cost of living in the country, rampant crime, subpar public transportation compared to other parts of Denmark, impossible to drive a car, people on bikes constantly almost ramming you cause traffic laws do not apply to them, i can keep going
Oh god please come to philadelphia where i am from and ill show you rampant crime, severe drug and homelessness problems, difficult driving and god awful public transport. Literally have been in awe of this city in the last week because of how incredibly safe it is and how great the public transport is, and the lack of cars and generally clean city. You dont know how good youve got it, id literally do anything for the chance to live here.
Your 12 years of smoking joints is getting to your head.
Stop smoking and enjoy the beautiful city.
Username does not check out, /u/purehatenosmoke would make more sense.
There’s a grave for a time traveler in Assistens Kirkegård; Andreas Morgenrødt b.1996 d. 2064