Rådhuspladsen - Town hall square, Copenhagen

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A big lively square enhances the palace of City hall.

Too dark and heavy at first glance, a closer look reveals a harmonious building, with fine golden details.

Only with one century, it was inspired in Siena's City hall.

In Town Hall Square is another famous landmark. This is Column and at the top are two Vikings blowing an ancient trumpet called a lur. The lur actually dates from the Bronze Age (ca. 1500 B.C.), while the Vikings lived some 1,000 years ago.

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When we were here, there was some construction going on, so it was a little bit of a mess.

The square was finally finished being built in 1905. It is from here that all measurements in Denmark are measured from a stone post that says ”0 km” and all distances to the north, south and west are measured from this point.

Town Hall Square, we found it to be quite a busy place! The square is surrounded by many old buildings worth gazing at, especially the Richs building on the corner of Vestervoldgade and Radhuspladsen. Look up and you will see a Golden Girl in the tower. This golden girl is quite clever, as she comes out of the tower on her bicycle when the weather is fine & clear, and with a Dog and Umbrella if rain expected. If you can see both of her at the same time, it will be an overcast day. A very interesting display created in 1936 by Einar Utzon-Frank.

Located in the square were Hot-Dog food stalls and buskers, street vendors and hordes of pigeons. There were plenty of park benches to sit and watch the activity, that is, if you can find a free one!

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Copenhagen City Hall is situated on The City Hall Square in central Copenhagen. The current building, built in 1905, was built in National Romantic style. It is impressive, although rather plain, it does have a statue of Absalon just above the balcony. There is a tall, slim clock tower, which houses an Astronomical Clock. This was designed by Jens Olsen in 1955 and is world-famous
King Frederik IX set the clock in motion on December 15, 1955. The clockwork is so exact that it's accurate to within half a second every 300 years!

Jens Olsen's World Clock is in the Town Hall.
OPEN... Monday to Friday 11am to 2pm and Saturday at noon. years.
ADMISSION.... 10DKK adults, 5DKK childreN

To the top of the tower is 300 steps. There isn't an elevator.
OPEN....Mon-Fri 8:30am-4:30pm, Sat 10am- 1pm.
ADMISSION....Tower 20DKK

Tours of the Town Hall are available in English

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Dragon's are everywhere in Town Hall Square. Scary, but I love their designs and fearsome faces!

Lining the balustrade of the Town Hall, are some BIG DRAGONS.
There is a story to these Dragons.

It was in 1889, a sketch was made for the Dragon fountain. In 1904, it was erected with a bronze basin, and located on the edge of the basin were three dragons, all spouting water and rather larger than sketched in the 1889 project. The basin quickly became known as 'the spitoon'. It was 1908, when the fountain received a low outer basing, and then in 1923, the Dragon Fountain was completely finished when a Bull battling with a Dragon was added.

Three smaller Dragons were made and placed on the edge of the basin, and the larger Dragons are placed on the balustrade in front of the Town Hall. Six bronze baskets of fruit placed on every other one of the twelve stone consoles were added.
The entire fountain was moved 25 metres into the square, and the outer granite basin with the bronze baskets was removed.

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Photos:
1. City Hall and the Square
2. A cyclist near City Hall
3. More cyclists going past on H C Andersens Boulevard
4. Three more cyclists near City Hall
5. Cyclist with an Illums Bolighus bag

The City Hall Square is a lively place near the main station and at the beginning of the Strøget pedestrian streets.

Lots of cyclists go past here, including the lady in the fifth photo who is on her way home from shopping at Illums Bolighus, a very up-market store for interior design and accessories ("By Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark") located at Amagertorv 10 on the Strøget.

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Rådhuspladsen (The Town Hall Square) is located in the centre of Copenhagen, and is a good place to start your sightseeing tour. The Central Station is only a few minutes away and both the Tivoli Gardens and the pedestrian shopping street - “Strøget” - are visible from the square.

Rådhuspladsen is occasionally home of special events like concerts, live sport on big-screen (football games) and political demonstrations, but on a normal quiet day you’ll have to settle with the street entertainers (musicians, comedians…) performing on the square...

At Christmas time the neon signs around the square must compete with the light of the city’s official Christmas tree… Rådhuspladsen is the big gathering place in Copenhagen on New Years Eve, and Danish TV broadcasts live from the square when the clock on the Town Hall strikes 12. I went there once to celebrate the New Year - but never again. People were throwing fireworks everywhere and it was a bit too crazy for me…

The monument, Lurblæserne (The Lur Blowers), is located very near the Town Hall Square, and was built between 1911 and 1914. Lurblæserne is a gift from the Carlsberg Foundation to celebrate the 100-year birthday of Brewer J.C. Jacobsen (1811-1887). Legend says that the lur blowers blow a sound on their horns whenever a virgin passes by…

The TOwn Hall square (Rådhuspladsen) in Copenhagen is a busy place but doesn't offer much of merchandise during winter season. It was built between 1812-1905 and fits for 50,000 people. It's nice because it's a big square with many nice buildings around. There's also a statue of Danish author H.C Andersen in one of its corners.

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City Hall Square is the largest square in Copenhagen.

The foundation stone was laid down by crown prince Frederick on July 1894 (the day of his 25th wedding anniversary). The square was inaugurated in 1905.

You will be impressed by National Romantic style.

On one side of the square is the location of the Tivoli and on the other side of the square the famous pedestrian street Strøget begins.

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Town hall Square (Rådhuspladsen) is so centrally located that we passed by many times, it was always busy with people, locals and tourists, many protests took place here too.

Although there are many buildings around it is actually the square in front of Copenhagen’s Town Hall(Radhus) (pic 1). It was built in 1905 with an imposing façade and a 105 meter high tower. You can visit the Town Hall for free and follow the guided tours but you can also go up to the tower (for 20DKK, I think at 10.00, 12.00 and 14.00, there’s no elevator though, 300 steps wait for you…) and have a panoramic view of the city.

Unfortunately the Town Hall was closed to public during our visit due to a design conference, that’s why we saw many people with colorful clothes on the square (pic 5)
The square is the zero point where all Danish distances are counted from (pic 2). You can see several sculptures around (small or big, on the ground or on top of high columns or at the buildings’ facade) like the dragon fountain that shows a bull and a dragon in combat, a H.C.Andersen’s statue, The Lur Blowers, The Weather Girl (at Richs building) etc