It was interesting walking around Christiania Freetown for a couple of hours on the Danish public holiday of Ascension Day. It was busy full of tourists and locals drinking, eating and taking photos like at any other commercialized tourist hot spot. I was fascinated by its history, being an abandoned Miliary barracks that hippies and squatters broken into back in 1971 and stayed there ever since. They must have been pretty organised to held out for this long and sort of won against the strength of Danish Government. I say sort of won because there seems to be some sort of official agreement in place now. I found it a bit confusing but there appears to be some sort of Freetown Christiania Foundation that now owns or leases the land and some buildings which was partly funded by the sale of Symbolic shares.
The maps sort of shows how the land was originally changed from wetlands to ramparts and motes with military barracks to help defend Copenhagen but then came obsolete as the years went by. There were many food places, a pub and a market operating just like you would see anywhere. As an electrician and tradesman I could see lax or none existent building codes or regulations. The few public toilets were broken and not functional. The further away you walked from the main area you could see more housing amongst heavy over grown vegetation.
I just Love these recycled wooden sculptures. I have heard there are quite a few now around Denmark and the world but this one at Christiania Freetown was our first in real life.
Just outside Christiania is the impressive Church of our Saviour with the steps to the top around the outside of the spire. If only we had some more time and had not already done a parkrun in the morning.
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