Things to see and do Hovedstaden

A wave gushing out of the ocean! This is the impression given by the architecture of this immense hotel, which is part of the Congress Centre inaugurated in 1965, and which has been constantly enlarged and modernised since then until the construction of the two 15° inclined towers, 77 metres high, designed by the Danish firm 3XN. The Bella Sky Hotel, with its breathtaking panoramic view, is certainly the largest hotel in Scandinavia with 814 rooms. No doubt they were all occupied during the International Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009!

This imposing building with a glass façade reminiscent of a game of Tetris is the DAC. The centre of Danish architecture. Another building of audacity and excess! Indeed, Copenhagen is indeed a capital of modernity: design, archi, urban culture. This is where an experimental laboratory and a mediation space combine to learn all about the world of tomorrow. Exhibitions adapted to all audiences are organized there. If the archi leaves you indifferent, maybe the view from the café on the first floor and its great terrace will tempt you!

Forty French prisoners of war from the first world war are buried here. A monument salutes their memory and the inscription on the column states that "Grateful Denmark watches over their grave". Several other Danish cemeteries erected a similar monument to the dead after the First World War. On Allegade, the vault and graves of Rudolph Tegner's family are decorated with sculptures by this famous Danish artist whose work is quite similar to that of Bourdelle. He and his wife were buried near Dronningmølle.

This chic good-looking beach is 700 m long and attracts crowds during the summer months. The resort was developed in the 1930s and entrusted to the care of Arne Jacobson. It is to him that we owe the Bellevue theatre, original for its retractable roof, a restaurant (named after the famous designer) and entirely signed by his hand as well as the... gas station. Small, simple and elegant with its oval, flat awning (at Kystenvejen no. 24).

Charlottenborg Palace, built from 1672 onwards, owes its name to Queen Mother Charlotte Amalie who bought it in 1699. After the death of its owner, it was assigned to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts as a library (still active). Beyond the inner courtyard, a second building, opening onto Nyhavn, houses the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, a centre for contemporary art. Temporary exhibitions are organized all year round, rather sharp in their approach!

Donated by the Nordea Foundation to the city of Copenhagen and inaugurated in August 2015, the bridge was designed by homegrown architect Olafur Eliasson. Five circular platforms of varying sizes, each dominated by its own mast, offer passersby and bicycles an alternative route. Illuminated at night, pivoting to let boats in and out, this work is a masterpiece that is part of the local urban development plan.

If ever nostalgia for the Hexagon takes you, take a trip by Vaernedamsvej. A little frenchy corner where nothing takes us out of our comfort zone. There are restaurants of French inspiration, wine bars, local shops - butcher's and delicatessen, cheese dairy, primeurs... -and, of course, the little café on the corner, an expatriate hangout. On the same street is the Prins Henriks Skole, the French high school in Copenhagen. It bears the name of the most famous Frenchman in the capital, Henri de Laborde de Montpezat!

This large, wide and noble avenue shaded by linden trees leads from the popular Vesterbro district to the splendid Frederiksberg Park. At the time of its creation, the avenue was a private road, the King's Road, reserved for the court during their seasonal migrations to the park. Much later, this straight road through a former rural area was populated by guinguettes and estaminets, offering healthy breaks for Copenhageners in search of greenery. Today it is lined with opulent buildings, elegant shops and bourgeois cafés.

In the centre of the avenue stands a 20-metre high obelisk framed by four beauties in togas, symbols of Fidelity, Virtue, Justice and Courage. It was designed in 1797 by Nicolai Abildgaard, a Danish master of art who was very attached to the values of freedom of the French Revolution which he had witnessed during his stay in Paris. The bourgeoisie of Copenhagen wanted to commemorate the abolition nine years earlier by the future Frederick VI of the obligation for peasants to remain in the service of the manor for life, a Danish variant of serfdom.

This former Copenhagen Porcelain Factory dating from 1882 was renovated and converted into the Copenhagen Business School in 2009. It is home to more than 17,000 students. The school is not open to the public, but a walk through the building will allow you to discover the remains of its industrial past. Go through Søndre Fasanvej 9, where Royal Copenhagen maintains a two-storey factory shop selling ^2nd quality porcelain and discount products at special prices.

Istedgade travels through a once working class neighborhood known as the "red-light district," known to have been a stronghold of the labor movement in Denmark. Nowadays it is undergoing a complete transformation, with the renewal of its population, where bobos, creators and immigrants share spaces, each with its own themes and its own shops! Historically, it is here that the memory of the general uprising of the inhabitants against the Nazi occupiers in August 1944 is kept ... It all opens out near the Carlsberg breweries on Enghave Plads, another multi-ethnic space with hype cafés.

Lovers of the unusual will be overjoyed to enter this former warehouse, which is marked from the quay by a reproduction of Michelangelo's famous David . The place contains a collection of copies of sculptures ranging from Antiquity to the Renaissance. One wanders among a crowd of celebrities frozen in plaster. World-famous stars such as the Discobole or the Venus de Milo seem cramped in this setting of brick and large wooden beams. Depends on the Statens Museum for Kunst.