Israels Plads (literally ''Israel's Square'') is a large

public square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true square, geometric square, used for community gathe ...

in central

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, located in the area between

Nørreport station Nørreport station is an S-train, metro and main line railway station in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is located in the district of Indre By, and is named after the historic '' Nørreport city gate'', at the original location of which it is located ...

and The Lakes. Its north end is home to a covered food market while the south end is currently subject to a comprehensive redesign which will integrate it with the adjoining Ørsted Park.

History

Background

The square is located in the area which was released after Copenhagen's Bastioned Fortifications were decommissioned in the second half of the 19th century. Until then the area had remained largely undeveloped due to the enforcement of a no-built zone outside the city walls.

The Greengroceer's Market

A vegetable market, ''Grønttorvet'', opened at Vendersgade on 26 April 1889 after the market activities had been discontinued at

Christianshavns Torv Christianshavns Torv is the central town square, public square of the Christianshavn neighborhood in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is situated at the intersection of Torvegade and Christianshavns Kanal, Christianshavn Canal, roughly at the center of the ...

Expansion and move

The northern part of today's Israels Plads, between Vendersgade and Frederiksborggade, was originally not part of Grønttorvet. It had a fountain and was known as ''Hundetorvet'' (literally ''Dog Square''), presumably because it was popular with people walking their dog. In 1913, the space was incorporated into the market area. The market at Grønttorvet closed when the new vegetable market in

Valby Valby () is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is in the southwestern corner of Copenhagen Municipality, and has a mixture of different types of housing. This includes apartment blocks, terraced housing, areas with single ...

was inaugurated on 1 October 1958. Grønttorvet was renamed Israels Plads on 11 October 1968, the 25th anniversary of Nazi persecution of Jews in Denmark.

Buildings

The most distinctive building which faces the square is the mission house ''Bethesda'', at 17 Rømersgade, which was completed by the architect

Ludvig Knudsen Ludvig Harald Knudsen (18 August 1843 – 16 March 1924) was a Historicism (art), Historicist Denmark, Danish architect. He mainly designed churches. Biography Ludvig Knudsen was born in Copenhagen. He was the son of Jens Christian Knudsen ( ...

for the

Inner Mission The Inner Mission (german: Innere Mission, also translated as Home Mission) was and is a movement of German evangelists, set up by Johann Hinrich Wichern in Wittenberg in 1848 based on a model of Theodor Fliedner. It quickly spread from Germany to ...

in 1882. Most of the other buildings facing the square are apartment buildings built for the upper middle class in the 1870s and 1889s. An example is 1–5 Rømersgade which was designed by Julius Bagger for Hans Hansen, better known as ''Hellig-Hansen'', a prominent developer of the time who later built the entertainment venues ''National'' and ''Dagmar Theatre'' before he went bankrupt in 1884. The buildings have rich

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

decorations.

Torvehallerne

The two market halls were designed by Hans Peter Hagens and opened in September 2011. The following groceries are available at the market: open faced

sandwiches A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

;

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

products, including

rack of lamb A rack of lamb or carré d'agneau (though this may also refer to other cuts) is a cut of lamb cut perpendicularly to the spine, and including 16 ribs or chops. At retail, it is usually sold 'single' (sawn longitudinally and including the 8 ribs on ...

“Lammekrone”;

seafood Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus an ...

, including

fish products Fish and fish products are consumed as food all over the world. With other seafoods, they provides the world's prime source of high-quality protein; 14–16 percent of the animal protein consumed worldwide. Over one billion people rely on fish a ...

prawns Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature ...

and

lobsters Lobsters are a family (Nephropidae, synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, ...

;

mozzarella Mozzarella (, ; nap, muzzarella ) is a southern Italian cheese traditionally made from Italian buffalo's milk by the pasta filata method. Fresh mozzarella is generally white but when seasoned it turns to a light yellow depending on the anim ...

;

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

dragée A dragée ( ; ), also known as confetto (; ), malbas, Jordan almond, or sugared almond in the U.K, is a bite-sized form of confectionery with a hard outer shell. It is often used for another purpose (e.g. decorative, symbolic, medicinal, etc.) i ...

and

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

. There are free public toilets beside the food market.

Landscape project

A design competition for the refurbishment of the southern portion of the square was won by the architectural firm Cobe in 2008. Their winning proposal introduces various facilities for street sports and performances as well as an organic integration with the adjoining park. The implementation of the project has been delayed due to a dispute with the owner of an underground parking facility but finally went under construction in 2012 and was completed in 2014.

References

External links

Israels Plads Syd
at

Danish Architecture Centre Danish Architecture Center (Danish: Dansk Arkitektur Center), (DAC), is Denmark’s national center for the development and dissemination of knowledge about architecture, building and urban development. DAC’s objective and legitimacy consist in ...

's website {{coord, 55.6830, 12.5684, type:landmark_region:DK, display=title Squares in Copenhagen Streets in Copenhagen Retail markets in Copenhagen