Sankt Hans Torv () is a

public square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Relat ...

in the heart of the

Nørrebro Nørrebro (, ) is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen Municipality, Denmark. It is northwest of the city centre, beyond the location of the old Northern Gate (''Nørreport''), which, until dismantled in 1856, was near the current N ...

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 is dominated by a large granite sculpture by Jørgen Haugen Sørensen and is known for its thriving café scene. St. John's Church, the largest and oldest church in Nørrebro, is situated just east of the square. Located close to the major shopping street

Nørrebrogade Nørrebrogade is the principal shopping street of the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs from The Lakes, Copenhagen, The Lakes in the southeast to Nørrebro station in the northwest, linking Frederiksborggade and Dronning Louises B ...

and The Lakes, the square is a major junction in the area where the streets Blegdamsvej, Nørre Allé, Guldbergsgade, Elmegade,

Fælledvej Fælledvej () is a street in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It links the major shopping street Nørrebrogade in the west with the square Sankt Hans Torv in the east. History Fælledvej takes its name after the common Blegdam F� ...

and Sankt Hans Gade meet.

History

The site used to be part of Blegedam Common, one of the

common Common may refer to: As an Irish surname, it is anglicised from Irish Gaelic surname Ó Comáin. Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Com ...

s which used to surround Copenhagen when it was a fortified city. The square is located at the site where the cows that grazed the Blegdam Common as well as the adjacent Northn and Eastern Commons gathered for milking. Its status as an important junction goes back a long time. Blegdamsvej is one of the oldest roads in the area and Nørre Allé was established in the middle of the 19th century. Nørrebro's first church, St. John's, was built at the site in 1862 after the so-called Demarcation Line which restricted building activity outside Copenhagen's fortifications was moved to The Lakes. The site was for a while used as a cattle market. The square emerged towards the end of the century when the area was built over and developed into a dense, working-class neighbourhood. As traffic increased, it was reduced to a large road junction.

Sankt Hans Torv today

The current square was established in 1993 as part of an

urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

programme which sought to prompt the ongoing

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

of the area. It was designed by Sven-Ingvar Andersson and Henrik Pøhlsgaard for City Architect Otto Käszner and completed in 1993. The project concentrated traffic along three sides and created a slightly undulating public space with granite paving. The square is lined with cafés. French-style Cafe Sebastopol (No. 32) has been located on the square since 1994. Kaffeplantagen, a local chain of coffee houses, opened its first branch at No. 3 in 2004.

Notable buildings and residents

The square is dominated by a large property with a concave facade flanked by two projecting, rounded corners, which occupies the space between Nørre Allé and Guldbergsgade. The oldest building on the square is the Sankt Hans Gade School. It was built in 1851 yp frdohm nu Peter Christoph Hagemann and was later adapted by Theodor Sørensen in 1862 as witnessed by an inscription on the facade. The school closed in 1984.

Panorama

References

External links