AXELTORV
Square named after the town's founder, Bishop Absalon, home to a frieze-adorned circus and the Palads Biografen.
This semi-pedestrian square, opening onto Vesterbrogade opposite Tivoli, was inaugurated in 1917. It is named after the city's founder, Bishop Absalon, known as Axel in Danish. Since its origins, the perimeter has been the focus of entertainment venues, the most famous of which, the National Scala, was razed to the ground in 2013. We were then on the outskirts of the suburbs and on the outskirts of the railway stations.
At the junction of the square with Studiestræde is the circus. Opened in 1880, this circular building, topped by a low dome and adorned with friezes influenced by ancient Greece and Rome, lost its original function in 2003 after hosting Europe's leading circus troupes. At the time, big tops were in short supply, so circus troupes moved into permanent venues. A curious detail: this kind of show was forbidden during the winter months by a regulation of obscure origin, so the circus was transformed into a cinema. Today, it is run by an operator who organizes dinner shows to the delight of fans of this type of entertainment.
Opposite it, a particularly colorful building in shades of Indian pink and mauve is a historic cinema, the Palads Biografen, opened in 1918 on the site of the first railway station. It boasted a huge auditorium which, in its heyday, could accommodate almost 3,000 spectators, plus a 30-piece orchestra. Of course, this type of venue ceased to be profitable, and today no fewer than seventeen venues share the premises.
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