History of Copenhagen

The history of Copenhagen is mostly synonymous with the history of Denmark, for its growth as a major center for trade runs concurrent with Denmark's growth as a world power. Ever since Bishop Absalon built his 'Castle at Havn' in 1167, the city has been a lynch-pin in the country's history: Not always as the country's capital, but always as one of the most important localities in the Kingdom.

The Bishop's town

Situated on the coast of Øresund, Copenhagen has been the setting for more than 1000 years of life and trade. The city has always been open to external influences from foreign traders, craftsmen, and artists and has not remained untouched by wars. The city has been appropriated and ruled over by changing potentates.

If one went back in time to over a thousand years ago, the site of present-day Copenhagen would be nothing but damp salt marshes and a couple of small, low-lying islets that provided shelter for a small trading centre. The main industry was the sale of herring and the occasional crossing to Scania.

In the 1100s Havn (Harbour), as the town was called, assumed increasing importance and the town is reinforced with earthworks. The Catholic Church erected cathedrals in Roskilde and in Lund (in what is now Sweden), which laid the basis for further development in those regional centres, and as Havn was midway between the two cities, it was centrally located for traffic and trading.

In around 1160 King Waldemar the Great gave control of Copenhagen to Absalon, Bishop of Roskilde. Whereas other cities in the Danish realm are under the governance of the king, Havn or Købmannehavn (Merchants' Harbour) as it comes to be known, is given the Bishop of Roskilde as its lord and master.

In the years that follow, the town grew tenfold in size. Churches and abbeys are founded. Købmannehavn's economy blossomed due to the income from an enormous herring fishery trade, which provided large parts of Catholic Europe with salted herring for Lent.

Behind the New Earthworks

Copenhagen is located at the most important approach to the Baltic Sea and the rich North German trading towns of the Hanseatic League, providing Copenhagen with power and wealth, but also threatening its very existence.

Time and again the town is besieged and laid waste by the Hanseatic League. At the same time the Danish king was also attempting to take Copenhagen back from the bishop. The crown succeeded in 1416, when King Erik of Pomerania took over control of the town. Thenceforth Copenhagen belongs to the Danish Crown.

Despite centuries of power struggles and warring the town grew increasingly rich. Copenhageners did a brisk trade with friend and foe alike. Foreign merchants come to the town. Craft guilds are established and the University of Copenhagen is founded.

By the time of Christian IV's coronation in 1596, Copenhagen had become rich and powerful. The new king decides to make the town the economic, military, religious, and cultural centre for the whole of the Nordic region. The king establishes the first trading companies with sole rights to trade with lands overseas. In order to restrict imports, factories are set up so that the country can manufacture as many goods as possible on its own.

Christian IV expanded Copenhagen by adding two new districts: Nyboder (New Booths) for the large numbers of navy personnel and the merchants' new district and Christianshavn (Christian's Harbour), which is modelled after Amsterdam. A modern fortification with earthworks and bastions was built to surround the whole of the extended town. Gradually, however, it parallels the town limits, and for the next 200 years or so traffic entering and leaving Copenhagen has to pass through Copenhagen's four narrow town gates.

Apart from the new earthworks Christian IV commissions German and Dutch architects and craftsmen to construct magnificent edifices designed to enhance his prestige. To this very day those buildings make their mark on the cityscape of Copenhagen.

By the time of Christian IV's death in 1648, Copenhagen had become Denmark's principal fortification and naval port, and the town formed a framework for the administration of the Danish kingdom and as a centre of trade in Northern Europe.