Frederiksberg, Copenhagen

The introduction

Hello everyone, I hope, that you are all doing just fine!

In this article I want to tell you about the place, where I lived while being in Copenhagen and it’s called Frederiksberg. You know, there have been many kings of Denmark called Frederik and that’s why many places are called in honor of them, I guess.

Well, I lived in Copenhagen for a couple of weeks and when I chose my accommodation, it seemed, like it was located in Frederiksberg and though I didn’t know what place it was, I was still very pleased, because I knew, that there was a metro station called Frederiksberg just nearby. Well, it was not that nearby, I mean it was about 15 minutes walk from the metro station to my accommodation, however, that’s how it is in Tbilisi, too, it’s about 15 minutes walk from my apartment to the metro station, so that it was kind of usual walk from my accommodation to the Frederiksberg metro station. Although, I must say, that I didn’t usually need to use the metro, as I mostly walked around the city and looked around and saw some interesting places, while the metro being under the ground is not that great idea in that case.

Welcome to Frederiksberg!

“Frederiksberg is steeped in history and the town offers an exciting blend of culture, modern architecture, open spaces and excellent shopping facilities. Today, it has developed into a municipality with more than 100 000 residents with a strong sense of local pride, ” you will read this thing if you get interested and go to the information machine and have a look at it. It’s a pretty great thing, I mean, if you want to know something about the place you live in, there should be some things like that in the neighbourhood to go to and get the information. When I first saw this thing, it was in Dutch and I didn’t pay any attention, however, once when I was just walking around, I saw it again and got interested, what it might have been. When I got closer, I read, that it was information about Frederiksberg and it could be in English, too, so that I switched the language into English and read some things about that Frederiksberg.

Of course, there are not only the residents in Frederiksberg and it’s said, that there are approximately 30 000 students attending institutions of higher education situated in Frederiksberg, and 30 000 people, who are working and have jobs in Frederiksberg. There are also many visitors, who find Frederiksberg an interesting place and an attractive destination for an excursion, like shopping or dining or visiting the zoo, which is located in Frederiksberg, or just visiting the parks, which are very beautiful and relaxing.

You can easily get to Frederiksberg by metro, cars, public transportation, bicycle or on foot.

History of Frederiksberg

Frederiksberg’s history dates back to 1651, June the 2-nd, when king Frederik the 3-rd gave 20 peasants of Dutch origin from Amager the right to settle and cultivate the previously royal land around Allégade. And so the new town was formed and named “Ny Amager”, which meant “New Amager” or “Ny Hollænderby”, meaning “New Dutchman-town”. However, it’s said, that the farming was unsuccessful and most of the town burned down in 1697.

After some time, king Frederik the 4-th built a palace on top of the hill known as Valby Bakke, and he named the palace Frederichs Berg, then the people settled around it called the place Frederiksberg and that’s how the name changed to Frederiksberg.

“Frederiksberg was given its local self-government in 1858, and it rapidly began to grow in population. From 1919, the authority appointed its own mayor and city council. From the beginning of the 20-th century and in the following 40-50 years the urban development continued in Frederiksberg. Around 1950 the city was almost fully developed and the number of citizens reached 120 000 _ the highest ever. Frederiksberg was _ and still is _ characterized by extensive villa districts and spacious blocks of flats. ”

Nowadays, you will see 3 to 5-story residential houses and large houses and large parks in Frederiksberg. There are, of course, poor and average people living there in certain places, as they say, however, you will see many large family houses, too, and nowadays it’s considered to be one of Copenhagen’s prestigious areas to live in, I guess, that’s probably because of all the green area, that the Frederiksberg has in it.

Shopping in Frederiksberg

Shopping is mostly concentrated along the three streets, Gl. Kongevej, Falconer Alle and Godthabsvej.

You can find a large shopping center just next to the Frederiksberg metro station, which is right in the middle of Frederiksberg, though it’s not just this place, where you can go shopping. There are lots of other small markets, where you can shop for goods. There are also some shops in front of this shopping center, where you can buy some second-hand clothes and, trust me, they are pretty fine and the prices are reasonable, too.

Interesting places

There are many interesting places in Frederiksberg, for example, the zoo, which is really large and it contains many things and you just have to have plenty of time to see all the zoo. The bad thing is, that it only works until 8 p. m., so that it’s not that easy to see it all just in one visit.

There’s also this Museum of Modern Glass Art, which is in the subterranean former Water Cisterns beneath Sondermarken just next to the Zoo.

You can also visit the Frederiksberg castle on the hill and enjoy the view of its beautiful architecture. It has this spacious green area in front of it, where some concerts and festivals take place from time to time.

One of the very touristically attractive place is the Carlsberg Experience, and it’s kind of called Carlsberg Exbeerience, because there you can have some beer while enjoying the tour there and going back to the beginnings – where it all started and how everything got to get to todays development.

There are also some great places to dine, and they have a thriving café life, I must say. Everywhere you go, there are those lovely tables and chairs on the sidewalks in front of the cafes and people sit there and hang out with their friends. It’s a pretty good way of relaxing and have some fun outside, and, besides, they all have those warm rugs to get inside, when it gets cold outside or whatever. Everything’s very beautiful and you can see the menus outside, so that you won’t even have to walk into the café to see, whether you will order something there or not. There are some great decorations outside the cafes and on the tables, so that they are like calling you to get inside or have a sit there and have a cup of coffee or something. And there are many people just hanging out sipping some espresso or even some beer there.

There are the University of Copenhagen's Frederiksberg Campus, Copenhagen Business School, 9 public schools (run by the municipality), 3 private schools, 1 technical college, and more in Frederiksberg

Photo gallery