Hauser Plads (København)
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Hauser Plads is a
public square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Relat ...
in the Old Town of
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
,
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
. It is separated from the larger, more well-known square Kultorvet by the former Copenhagen Central Library Building. A landscaped playground and Copenhagen Municipality's underground Cleaning Facilities Centre occupies most of the site since a renovation in 2011. Hauser Plads was created as a result of the British bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, which resulted in large damages on the city centre. The site was then for many years used for handling and storage of timber in connection with the rebuilding of the city. It was not laid out as an official square until the 1840s, making Hauser Plads the youngest public square in the Old Town of Copenhagen.


History


Before the British bombardment of 1796

St. Gertrud's Cemetery was located at the site in the 16th century but the area was later built over. Bolle Luddorph owned a property at the site. The street Pustervig was then a cul-de-sac. The area was destroyed in the
Copenhagen Fire of 1795 The Copenhagen Fire of 1795 (''Københavns brand 1795'') started on Friday, 5 June 1795, at or around 3 pm by the Navy's old base south east of Kongens Nytorv on Gammelholm, in the Navy's magazine for coal and timber, the so-called Dellehave. As t ...
. It had largely been rebuilt just five to 10 years later. It was just a few years later again destroyed in the British bombardment of the city in 1807. A
workhouse In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...
operated by the city's Poor Authority (''Fattigvæsnet'') had until then been located on the site but it burned during the attack.


Creating the square, 18191830

In 1809, Conrad Caspar Hauser purchased some of the empty lots in the area. He was originally from
Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
but had moved to Copenhagen after marrying the sister of the Danish ambassador to
Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
. The area where Hauser Plads is now located remained empty and was used for handling and storage of timber by the many craftsmen who worked on rebuilding the surrounding neighbourhood. Hauser's own house was completed in 1811. It was first proposed to establish a proper square at the site in 1818, mainly to release the pressure on Kultorvet, the city's coal market, which became very busy on market days. City architect Peder Malling created a plan for the area. Hauser proposed that a fountain be included in the plans, an idea which was supported by the fire brigade. City architect Peder Malling made a design proposal for the fountain, featuring a lion's head, but it was never built and it would take until 1939 before the square was completed. The square was formally called Suhrs Plads after the historian
Peter Frederik Suhm Peter Frederik Suhm (18 October 1728 – 7 September 1798), was a Danish historian. Biography Suhm studied at the University of Copenhagen from 1746 to 1751, and one of his teachers was Ludvig Holberg. In 1749 he translated a comedy of Plautu ...
who had lived at the site until his death in 1798 but this name never gained popularity. The square was instead colloquially known as Hausers Pladsand this name was used when the first street signs was installed.


20th and 21st centuries

In the 1950s, the buildings on the west side were demolished to make way for the new Central Library. The buildings that disappeared were a house row from the 1830s. The new building was completed in 1957 to designs by. The square was renovated in 2011 as part of a project which also included Købmagergade and kultorvet. The design competition was won by Danish architectural firm Polyform in collaboration with Dutch Karres en Brands.


Current square

The project converted an underground parking facility into a new home for the City's Cleaning Facility Center (''Center for Renhold''). The premises open to a sunken central courtyard with an
amoebic An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; : amoebas (less commonly, amebas) or amoebae (amebae) ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and r ...
shape that optimize the influx of natural daylight. Facilities include offices, canteen, showers, changing rooms and parking spaces. The courtyard is surrounded by a landscaped playground.


Notable buildings and residents

Namesake Conrad Caspar Hauser's house from 1811 is located at No. 32. He also constructed a warehouse which is located to the rear. The façade on Hauser Plads was altered in about 1870. The buildings were listed together with the neighbouring buildings at No. 28 and No. 30 in 1929/1945. The only building that dates from the time before the bombardment in 1807 is No. 24, on the corner of
Åbenrå Aabenraa (; , ; South Jutlandic: ''Affenråe'', also known as Åbenrå) is a town in Southern Denmark, at the head of the Aabenraa Fjord, an arm of the Little Belt, north of the Denmark–Germany border and north of German town of Flensburg. It ...
, which dates from 1730. The buildings at No. 10–18 and No. 26 all date from the 1820s or 1830s and are listed. Restaurant Schønnemann at No. 16 has existed since 1870 and is one of the oldest ''
smørrebrød (; originally , "butter and bread"), smørbrød "butter bread" (Norwegian language, Norwegian), or smörgås " butter goose" (Swedish language, Swedish), is a traditional Open sandwich, open-faced sandwich in the cuisine of Denmark, cuisines of ...
'' restaurants in the city. The beverage company State Drinks is based at No. 10.


In culture

Hauser Plads is mentioned several times in
Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...
's ''
Stages on Life's Way ''Stages on Life's Way'' (; historical orthography: ''Stadier paa Livets Vej'') is a philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard written in 1845. The book was written as a continuation of Kierkegaard's prior work ''Either/Or (Kierkegaard book), Eithe ...
''. In
Section Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...
3, the narrator explains that he used to visit Hauser Plads every Wednesday at 4 am.


See also

* List of squares in Copenhagen


References


External links


Visualisation of the Cleaning facilities centre

Images
on arkitekturbilleder.dk
Source
{{coord, 55.6832, N, 12.5759, E, source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:DK, display=title Squares in Copenhagen