Copenhagen's green lung

They prefer calling themselves the green lung of the City, because despite being in the middle of Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, the people of Christiania live by their own rules and consider themselves autonomous. It is like a village in the city.

Copenhagen - They have a communal shower place, a shelter where you can leave your clothes in exchange for something better you saw, a house for gays and a house for the Eskimos. There is a Pusher Street – where drug dealers or pushers thrive, a different currency and the most beautiful stretch of nature you can find anywhere in Copenhagen.

Christiania it is called. They prefer calling themselves the green lung of the City, because despite being in the middle of Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, the people of Christiania live by their own rules and consider themselves autonomous. It is like a village in the city.

At the main entrance off Prinsessegade, a sign at the top of the gate welcomes you to Christiania. And when you are leaving, the sign at the gate cheekily reads, “You are now entering the EU [European Union]”.
The architecture here is more disorganised; for a while it is easy to think one is in Africa. It is a mixture of shacks, tents and very up-market houses designed to personal taste.
Our Danish guide who also speaks fluent Swahili – wasted on us since Ugandans are not best known for their Kiswahili – proudly informs us that in Christiania there are “four unbreakable rules. No hard drugs, no rocker badges, no weapons and no violence.”
In the same breath she warns us not to take any pictures on Pusher Street, lest we get roughed up by the drug dealers. Duh?
But a walk through this 38-year-old community is captivating. Second only to the famous Tivoli amusement park in the Nordic city, Christiania attracts a big number of tourists every year.
The area on 85 acres with about 1,000 inhabitants is surrounded by water and started as an army barracks (Baadsmandsstraede Barracks) built by the Danish government to thwart attacks from Sweden.
In the 1960s, the army was shifted from the aging buildings, leaving the scenic area fenced off and uninhabited.
Copenhagen is best known as one of the world’s most expensive cities, meaning a score of its inhabitants could not afford the rent and the fenced off barracks suddenly looked inviting.
Eventually, the low income earners broke down the wall and stormed the barracks, turning it into one of the cosiest areas of Copenhagen today.
They call it the artists’ Freetown, because writers, artists, artistes and the homeless thrive in Christiania and reggae music, artistic graffiti and paintings are all over the place.
Former armouries have been turned into communal shower rooms. What used to be a senior officers’ mess is now a school and a fortress has been turned into apartments. Of course the old buildings add to Christiania’s allure, now enhanced with more residential houses, sandy streets that come without street lights but are littered with lavender plants and shrubs.
The cinema hall is something else. It is a small auditorium with polished wooden floors and sandy aisles. Christiania does not allow automobiles. If you want to visit, you have to park your car in one of the bordering streets and then walk in, or ride a bicycle. The guide explained: “We want our children and dogs to play without any worries.”
As a result, the streets are really village footpaths with street names and in summer they disappear into overgrown but beautiful green bushes that can fill an African with nostalgia.
A bridge across the waterway separates the business part of Christiania from the more quiet residential area with small beautiful cottages with verandas extending over the water.
Although it started out and is still known as the hippes’ area, it has become increasingly popular even for well to do Danes to get a retreat home in Christiania, according to our guide. But it is a lengthy and near-impossible process of communal meetings likened to Uganda’s LC system, debating and vetting who should take over which vacant premises. You don’t just move in, although all Danes come and go as they wish during the day.
But all is not well in this green haven. Since a right wing government came into power in 2001, there are debates and counter debates over removing Christiania and ‘developing’ the area with planned buildings like the rest of Copenhagen.
In fact, government has even offered to buy the 85 acres from the Christianites with the sole purpose of demolition, because it is believed to be the source of Copenhagen’s drugs problem, but the community is “not selling”. What is legally government land is now theirs. Some NGOs have joined the fray and are offering to help the Christianites buy the area and get the government off their backs, but it is still a stalemate.
For someone who visited for just a day, it is impossible not to understand why the community fiercely defends this neighbourhood. Scenic.
carol@ugandaobserver.com