Sankt Hans Torv ( lit. "St. John's Marketplace") is a

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 the heart of the Nørrebro district of

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 ...

. It is dominated by a large granite sculpture by Jørgen Haugen Sørensen and is known for its thriving café scene.

St. John's Church St. John's Church, Church of St. John, or variants, thereof, (Saint John or St. John usually refers to John the Baptist, but also, sometimes, to John the Apostle or John the Evangelist) may refer to the following churches, former churches or other ...

, the largest and oldest church in Nørrebro, is situated just east of the square. Located close to the major shopping street

Nørrebrogade Nørrebrogade is the principal shopping street of the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs from The Lakes in the southeast to Nørrebro station in the northwest, linking Frederiksborggade and Queen Louise's Bridge with Frederikssu ...

and The Lakes, the square is a major junction in the area where the streets

Blegdamsvej Blegdamsvej is a street in Copenhagen, Denmark, connecting Sankt Hans Torv in Nørrebro to Trianglen in Østerbro. The busy artery Fredensgade separates the Nørrebro and Østerbro sections of the street from each other. The north side of the st ...

Nørre Allé Nørre Alle (literally "North Avenue") is a street in Copenhagen, Denmark, running from Blegdamsvej in Nørrebro in the south to Vibenshus Runddel in Østerbro in the north. It runs through University of Copenhagen's North Campus which is cent ...

, Guldbergsgade, Elmegade,

Fælledvej Fælledvej ( lit. "Common Road") is a street in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It links the major shopping street Nørrebrogade in the west with the square Sankt Hans Torv in the east. History Fælledvej takes its name after t ...

and Sankt Hans Gade meet.

History

The site used to be part of Blegedam Common, one of the

common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

s which used to surround Copenhagen when it was a fortified city. The square is located at the site where the cows that grazed the Blegdam Common as well as the adjacent Northn and Eastern Commons gathered for milking. Its status as an important junction goes back a long time.

is one of the oldest roads in the area and

was established in the middle of the 19th century. Nørrebro's first church, St. John's, was built at the site in 1862 after the so-called Demarcation Line which restricted building activity outside Copenhagen's fortifications was moved to The Lakes. The site was for a while used as a cattle market. The square emerged towards the end of the century when the area was built over and developed into a dense, working-class neighbourhood. As traffic increased, it was reduced to a large road junction.

Sankt Hans Torv today

The current square was established in 1993 as part of an

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

programme which sought to prompt the ongoing

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...

of the area. It was designed by Sven-Ingvar Andersson and Henrik Pøhlsgaard for City Architect Otto Käszner and completed in 1993. The project concentrated traffic along three sides and created a slightly undulating public space with granite paving. The square is lined with cafés. French-style Cafe Sebastopol (No. 32) has been located on the square since 1994. Kaffeplantagen, a local chain of coffee houses, opened its first branch at No. 3 in 2004.

Notable buildings and residents

The square is dominated by a large property with a concave facade flanked by two projecting, rounded corners, which occupies the space between Nørre Allé and Guldbergsgade. The oldest building on the square is the Sankt Hans Gade School. It was built in 1851 yp frdohm nu Peter Christoph Hagemann and was later adapted by Theodor Sørensen in 1862 as witnessed by an inscription on the facade. The school closed in 1984.

Panorama

References

External links