Enghaveparken is a

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...

in the Vesterbro district of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. It was laid out in the late 1920s to cater for the citizens of the expanding city. The park is designed in the

Neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

. It has grassy lawns, flower beds and contains a

bandstand A bandstand (sometimes music kiosk) is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an ornamen ...

, a playground and facilities for sports as well as barbecuing.

History

In the late 19th century, the Royal Danish Horticultural Society established 478

allotment Allotment may refer to: * Allotment (Dawes Act), an area of land held by the US Government for the benefit of an individual Native American, under the Dawes Act of 1887 * Allotment (finance), a method by which a company allocates over-subscribed ...

s in "Dronningens Enghave" at the site where Enghaveparken lies today. In the 1920s the allotments were moved and the small public park Enghaven was laid out under the direction of City Architect Poul Holsøe, who also designed the red-brick social housing which was built at the same time and borders the park on three sides. Tredje Natur has won a competition to redesign the park.

Layout and features

The slightly rectangular park is divided into six spaces: a

water garden Water garden or aquatic garden, is a term sometimes used for gardens, or parts of gardens, where any type of water feature (particularly garden ponds) is a principal or dominant element. The primary focus is on plants, but they will sometimes ...

, a

rose garden A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Designs vary tremendously and roses may be displayed alongside other plants or grouped ...

, a perennial garden, a sports section, a playground and a 'meeting place'.

Basin and fountain

Along its central axis, in front of the main entrance which faces Enghavevej, there is a gravel area centred on a square basin with a fountain. It is popular with ducks and

grey heron The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia, and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more norther ...

which come from a colony on a small island in close by Frederiksberg Park.

Bandstand

At the extreme far end of the central axis, opposite the main entrance, stands a

. It was designed by later famous Danish

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

architect and designer

Arne Jacobsen Arne Emil Jacobsen, Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects, Hon. FAIA (; 11 February 1902 – 24 March 1971) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. He is remembered for his contribution to functionalism (architec ...

who spend his two first years after leaving architecture school working at Poul Holsøe's office. It is one of his only Neoclassical works. A year later he opened his own practice and built his first Modernist building. The bandstand is decorated with figure reliefs by Aage Nielsen-Edwin, depicting '' Apollo and the Nine Muses''.

Sculptures

In front of the main entrance stands the statue ''Venus med Æblet'' (''Venus with the apple'') by Kai Nielsen. The tight budget only allowed for this single piece of art at the time of the inauguration. Nielsen was popular with the Danish Neoclassical movement of the time, his work for instance dominates Carl Petersen's Faaborg Museum, the first major building of the movement. In 1933,

Einar Utzon-Frank Aksel (Axel) Einar (Ejnar) Utzon-Frank (30 March 1888 – 15 July 1955) was a Danish sculptor and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. During his lifetime, he produced many sculptures, some of which stand as public monuments. U ...

's statue ''Ungdom'' (''Youth'') was added.

Activities

The park is popular with locals for sunbathing or picnicking. It also has facilities for skater hockey,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

pétanque Pétanque (, ; ; ) is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports (along with Raffa (boules), raffa, bocce, boule lyonnaise, Bowls, lawn bowls, and Crown green bowls, crown green bowling). In these sports, players or teams play thei ...

. The bandstand is frequently used for

open-air concert A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or holi ...

References

External links

Enghaveparken
on Google maps
Enghavevej

Venus med æblet
{{Copenhagen parks Parks in Copenhagen Vesterbro, Copenhagen