Vesterbro
Encyclopedia
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...
, Denmark
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...
. It covers an area of 3.76 km², and has a population of 35,455 and a population density of 9,440 per km².
- to the northeast, the Indre ByIndre ByIndre By , also known as Copenhagen Center or K or Downtown Copenhagen or City, is one of the 15 administrative, statistical, and tax city districts comprising the municipality of Copenhagen, Denmark...
, also known as "Copenhagen Center" or "Downtown Copenhagen" or "City" - to the north, Frederiksberg municipalityFrederiksbergFrederiksberg Kommune is a municipality on the island of Zealand in Denmark. It surrounded by the city of Copenhagen. The municipality, co-extensive with its seat, covers an area of and has a total population of 98,782 making it the smallest municipality in Denmark area-wise, the fifth most...
, which is not a part of Copenhagen municipality but rather an enclave surrounded by the municipality - to the west, ValbyValby' is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen, Denmark. Located in the southwestern corner of Copenhagen Municipality, it is a heterogeneous mixture of different types of housing - including apartment blocks, terraced housing, areas with single-family houses and allotments, as well as remains...
- to the south, Kongens EnghaveKongens EnghaveKongens Enghave , also known as Sydhavnen , is a district in southern Copenhagen. The area has historically been one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Copenhagen, dissected by major transport corridors and characterized by social problems as well as industry along the harbour-front.Since the turn...
.
The Vesterbro district
Indre Nørrebro
Indre Nørrebro , is one of the 15 administrative, statistical, and tax city districts comprising the municipality of Copenhagen, Denmark...
(“Inner Nørrebro”), Indre Østerbro
Indre Østerbro
Indre Østerbro , is one of the 15 administrative, statistical, and tax city districts comprising the municipality of Copenhagen, Denmark. It lies on the eastern edge of the municipality...
(“Inner Østerbro”), Frederiksberg, and Christianshavn
Christianshavn
Christianshavn is an artificial island neighbourhood located in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in the early 17th century by Christian IV as part of his extension of the fortifications of Copenhagen. Originally it was laid out as an independent privileged merchant's town with inspiration from...
.
The district is located west of the city center at the location of the old Western Gate (‘’Vesterport’’), access way into the old city. The gate, along with the other three gates into the old city-- Østerport ("Eastern Gate") near the current Østerport station
Østerport station
Østerport station is a railway station in Østerbro, Copenhagen, Denmark. It is served by most S-trains, Kystbanen and other regional trains, as well as some InterCity trains.The station is used by approximately 30,000 passengers each day.-History:...
), Nørreport ("Northern Gate") near the current Nørreport station
Nørreport station
Nørreport Station is a mainline railway, S-train and Copenhagen Metro station located in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the busiest train station in the country, serving 300,000 people daily, including passengers not stepping off. There are 165.000 leaving or entering trains including the metro...
, and Amagerport ("Amager Gate", i.e. functionally the Southern Gate) between Christianshavn and the island of Amager
Amager
Amager is a Danish island in the Øresund. The Danish capital, Copenhagen, is partly situated on Amager, which is connected to the much larger island of Zealand by five bridges.-History:...
-- were dismantled in 1856.
The name "Vesterbro" literally translates into English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as "Western Bridge", and refers to the paved (Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, brolagt) road leading into the city through the Western Gate. Vesterbro is the area of the bridge into the city of Copenhagen, which was a much smaller city at the time when the name was created. At that time, the city was ringed by a moat which exist today as Peblinge soe and others.
The area has in recent years been renovated to a great extent, and its central location makes it a favored place to live. It has had a reputation as a center for prostitution and drug trafficking, where only the poorest would live, and there is still a certain amount of these activities in the area, especially on Istedgade
Istedgade
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...
and near Halmtorvet, but there has been police focus on clearing up troublesome areas. The area is also known as the easy place to get drugs in Copenhagen.
History
Vesterbro was originally the name of the paved country road that led into the city center from the west. Few country roads in those days were paved, but the amount of traffic into the capital necessitated it.Until 1853 after the cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic that had hit Copenhagen, there had been a "no build" zone outside Copenhagen’s old part of town, the part now known as the Inner City or Indre By. This Demarcation Line (Demarkationslinien) indicated an area beyond the city’s century’s old defense wall system where Copenhagen’s defense forces could strike the enemy unhindered.
Until then there was little development outside the center of the city, except with special permission. Even though much of the area was used as grazing
Grazing
Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...
land, by the 1780s there were approx. 1,000 inhabitants of the area, as well as a number of commercial enterprises (lumberyards, tobacco farm, several industrial buildings), and the house of the Royal Copenhagen Shooting Society and Danish Brotherhood (‘’Det kongelige kjøbenhavnske Skydeselskab og danske Broderskabs’’). The society received permission to build outside the old city limits in the 1750s, and the building has housed the Copenhagen City Museum since 1956.
With the abolishment of the demarcation line in 1853, the dismantling of the old fortifications that ringed the center of town in the late 1860s, and the removal of the old entrance gates to the city in 1856, the population quickly spread out to the “as yet” undeveloped areas outside the center. This movement came first to the inner ring of areas outside the center: the Indre Østerbro ("Inner Østerbro"), the Indre Nørrebro ("Inner Nørrebro"), Vesterbro, and Frederiksberg.
At that time the name Vesterbro began being used for the entire area around the street named Vesterbro, and late in the 1800s the name of the street itself was changed to Vesterbrogade ("Vesterbro Street").
Attractions
- IstedgadeIstedgadeIstedgade 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...
(heart and soul of Vesterbro nightlife) - Carlsberg neighbourhoodCarlsberg (district)Carlsberg is an area straddling the border of Valby and Vesterbro districts in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It covers an area of 33 hectares and is the former industrial site of the Carlsberg Breweries, which decommissioned their Valby brewery at the end of 2008, concentrating their production of...
- Det Ny Teater
- Ny Carlsberg GlyptotekNy Carlsberg GlyptotekThe Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark...
- Tivoli Gardens
- Tycho Brahe PlanetariumTycho Brahe PlanetariumThe Tycho Brahe Planetarium is located in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the southern end of Skt. Jørgens Sø. It is named after astronomer Tycho Brahe. It was designed by MAA Knud Munk and opened on November 1, 1989....
- Museum of Copenhagen
- Copenhagen Meatpacking DistrictMeatpacking District, Copenhagenthumb|Entrance to Øksnehallenthumb|Slagtehusgade, former slaughterhouses in the Brown Meat District, now housing various creative venuesthumb|Detail of main building, the White Kødby...
- Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, CopenhagenRadisson SAS Royal Hotel, CopenhagenThe Radisson Blu Royal Hotel is a hotel in Copenhagen, that was designed by Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen for the airline Scandinavian Airlines System between 1956 and 1960. At its completion the hotel was the largest in Denmark, at 69.60 meters in height, the first skyscraper in...
- Sorte HestSorte HestSorte Hest is the oldest building in the Vesterbro in Copenhagen, Denmark. It used to be a roadside inn, then located well outside the limits of the fortified city, standing on the Vestre Landevej leading in and out of Copenhagen through the Western City Gate...