Istedgade
Encyclopedia
Istedgade is a street located in the district of Vesterbro in the Danish
capital, Copenhagen
.
Located west of Copenhagen Central Station, Istedgade is a 1-kilometer straight street starting in the cheap hotel district, moving through the porn and drugs area to modern Vesterbro, where 1900s tenement style blocks have undergone significant modernization and the street now cuts through one of the hippest neighbourhoods in Copenhagen. It is generally considered the main traffic artery and the heart of Vesterbro.
The lewd part of Istedgade has for many years constituted its image along with the local residents' views of themselves as true working class, united under the 1940s (during German
occupation) slogan "Istedgade overgiver sig aldrig!" (Istedgade will never surrender!) To this day a banner with the slogan is flown across the street around Liberation Day
(5 May) to commemorate the Istedgade uprising and general strikes of the summer of 1944.
Today, as almost all of Istedgade and with it Vesterbro has undergone a gentrification
. Hip stores and cool cafes abound while real estate prices have risen faster than in most of Copenhagen.
Notable cafes and bars:
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
capital, Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
.
Located west of Copenhagen Central Station, Istedgade is a 1-kilometer straight street starting in the cheap hotel district, moving through the porn and drugs area to modern Vesterbro, where 1900s tenement style blocks have undergone significant modernization and the street now cuts through one of the hippest neighbourhoods in Copenhagen. It is generally considered the main traffic artery and the heart of Vesterbro.
The lewd part of Istedgade has for many years constituted its image along with the local residents' views of themselves as true working class, united under the 1940s (during German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
occupation) slogan "Istedgade overgiver sig aldrig!" (Istedgade will never surrender!) To this day a banner with the slogan is flown across the street around Liberation Day
Liberation Day
Liberation Day is a day, often a public holiday, that marks the liberation of a place, similar to an independence day. Liberation marks the date of either a revolution, as in Cuba, or the end of an occupation by another state, thereby differing from independence in the meaning of secession from...
(5 May) to commemorate the Istedgade uprising and general strikes of the summer of 1944.
Today, as almost all of Istedgade and with it Vesterbro has undergone a gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
. Hip stores and cool cafes abound while real estate prices have risen faster than in most of Copenhagen.
Notable cafes and bars:
- Riccos kaffebar (coffee shop, open 9 am – 11 pm)
- Bang og Jensen (cafe and bar)
- Riesen bar, around the corner up Oehlenschlägersgade (bar, open Wed–Sat 8 pm – late night)
- Vega, on Enghavevej around the corner from Enghave Plads (concerts, DJs, nightclubs and bars, including Ideal bar. Open bar most days, nightclub Wed–Sat till late, scheduled concerts all year round)
- Blomsten (bodega from late 1880s)
See also
- HalmtorvetHalmtorvetHalmtorvet is a public square in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is located next to Copenhagen Central Station in front of the Meat District...