Copenhagen Central Fire Station
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Copenhagen Central Fire Station (
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
: Københavns Hovedbrandstation) is the headquarters of
Copenhagen Fire Department The Greater Copenhagen Fire Department ( da, Hovedstadens Beredskab, formerly ) forms the largest municipal fire brigade in Denmark with more than 1000 employees, this includes firefighters, ambulance personnel, administration and service workers ...
and located on H.C. Andersens Boulevard just behind
Copenhagen City Hall Copenhagen City Hall ( da, Københavns Rådhus) is the headquarters of the Copenhagen City Council as well as the Lord mayor of the Copenhagen Municipality, Denmark. The building is situated on City Hall Square in central Copenhagen. Architect ...
and opposite
Tivoli Gardens Tivoli Gardens, also known simply as Tivoli, is an amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. The park opened on 15 August 1843 and is the third-oldest operating amusement park in the world, after Dyrehavsbakken in nearby Klam ...
. It was designed by
Ludvig Fenger Ludvig Peter Fenger (7 July 1833 – 9 March 1905) was a Danish architect. He was a proponent of the Historicist style, and from 1886 to 1904 he held the title of City Architect in Copenhagen. Among his works are several churches, the Centra ...
and inaugurated in 1892.


History

Copenhagen had its first fire department on 9 July 1687 when King
Christian V Christian V (15 April 1646 25 August 1699) was king of Denmark and Norway from 1670 until his death in 1699. Well-regarded by the common people, he was the first king anointed at Frederiksborg Castle chapel as absolute monarch since the decree ...
founded the Royal Copenhagen Fire Department. With the adoption of the Copenhagen Fire Act on 18 May 1868, the Copenhagen Fire Department was established as a municipal institution as of 1 August 1870. In the middle of the 19th century, the fire station in the former St. Nicolai's Church had become outdated. It was therefore decided to construct a new purpose-built central fire station on the former grounds of the city's Western Rampart. The Bastioned Fortifications until now enclosing Copenhagen had recently been disbanded and the vacant land was now used for a number of large public building projects. The recently instituted post of City Architect held by
Ludvig Fenger Ludvig Peter Fenger (7 July 1833 – 9 March 1905) was a Danish architect. He was a proponent of the Historicist style, and from 1886 to 1904 he held the title of City Architect in Copenhagen. Among his works are several churches, the Centra ...
was put in charge of the project. Construction began in 1889 and the new Central Fire Station was inaugurated on 30 April 1892. At that time, the City Hall had still not been built and the new premises therefore had an unhindered view of the haymarket which was located where the City Hall Square is today. The tower of the building was also used in training with life nets and use of tall fire ladders.


Architecture

The Central Fire Station is built to a
Historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...
design. With its
crenellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
gables, ogival gates and tower, the main source of inspiration is Medieval North Italian castle architecture.


Copenhagen Central Fire Station today

The fire station houses the alarm central for the entire
Greater Copenhagen The urban area of Copenhagen (also known as Greater Copenhagen) ( da, Storkøbenhavn or ), lying mostly in the Capital Region of Denmark but also in Region Zealand, consist of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg municipalities and the former Copenhagen ...
area. It also contains most of the administrative functions of the
Copenhagen Fire Department The Greater Copenhagen Fire Department ( da, Hovedstadens Beredskab, formerly ) forms the largest municipal fire brigade in Denmark with more than 1000 employees, this includes firefighters, ambulance personnel, administration and service workers ...
. The station's reaction district covers central Copenhagen as defined by the Inner Harbour, Dannebrogsgade, Vester Søgade, Gothersgade, St. Kongensgade and Esplanaden. The Copenhagen Fire Department operates six additional other fire stations within the municipality.


See also

*
Architecture of Denmark Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...


References


External links


Image
{{Ludvig Fenger Fire stations in Denmark Buildings and structures in Copenhagen Historicist architecture in Copenhagen Ludvig Fenger buildings Fire stations completed in 1892