Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark, Sept. 1999

Christiania is Copenhagen's "free town," where approximately 1,000 squatters, hippies, and self-proclaimed deadbeats live in the old abandoned Christianshavn army barracks they occupied in 1971, declaring themselves independent of the Danish state around them.

The community is known for its bikes and until 2004, for its open-air drug market known as Pusher Street.

Here's the full-length classic 1991 film about the history and life of the Freetown Christiania in the heart of Copenhagen during its first 20 years.

But Christiania may not have long to live.


Military barracks at Christiania.


Mural on a building near the entrance to Christiania.


Respect Christiania's love.

Posters from Denmark

Nyd lørdagen
Poster advertising the Politiken newspaper, Denmark.


Poster for latest CD from Danish Singer Caecilie Norby.


Danger is a haunted lollipop. That's what I always thought!


Kinky Copenhagen


Information is good.

Copenhagen sights

The Little Mermaid statue was a present from brewer Carl Jacobsen (The Carlsberg Breweries) to the city of Copenhagen, and was made by sculptor Edvard Erichsen. The Little Mermaid was unveiled at Langelinje in 1913, as part of a general trend in Copenhagen in those days, requiring classical and historic figures to be used as decorations in the city's parks and public areas.
Copenhagen's Little Mermaid symbolizes the fairy tale by Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen, the story of a mermaid who fell in love with a prince from land, and often came up to the edge of the water to look for her love. The sculpture pictures her as she sits and looks out over the water, after never actually having married the prince, and reminiscing over her lost childhood in the sea, as a mermaid.


Nyhavn, the recreational center of Copenhagen, is part of the original Copenhagen Harbor all the way back to the founding of Haven, as Copenhagen was then called, in the 12th century.


Ship's figurehead on balcony of apartment building in Nyhavn.

Farting around Denmark

In Danish, fart means speed.