ABSTRACT
When you arrive in Copenhagen by train and make your entry into the city via the main entrance of the Central Station, you begin your relationship with the city at Banegårdspladsen, the square in front of the Central Station – the best imaginable spot for a visitor who is interested in urban and cultural history. This is not at first glance the most exciting square in the city, but you find here a multiplicity of references to central chapters of the history of Copenhagen. The square’s placing in the context of the city, the adjacent streets and urban space, its buildings and monuments tell the story of Copenhagen’s evolution into a modern city. This is the story of the city’s development from “Kongens København” (The King’s Copenhagen) surrounded by ramparts and fortifications to a modern metropolis governed by its citizens and without any clearly marked limits – a development that is linked to the story of Denmark’s transition from agricultural to industrial nation. Thus, the station square is a meeting place for the historical and the modern, for the national and the international – and for many people.
