Freetown Christiania – Copenhagen, Denmark

A Country within a Country!! Traveling from one place to the next during our Europe trip was made on sudden impulses and mostly based on suggestions from our local friends. There was no Lonely Planet and the likes, just us and our whims!! And the only way we kept up with our friends or rather the other way around was through Facebook!! My status on Facebook usually was the easiest reference point in locating us. While I was in Copenhagen the capital & the largest city of Denmark, when my friend from Slovenia mailed me urging me to visit Christiania, a Freetown located a few minutes walk from Downtown Copenhagen. So the next day that’s where we headed to…. Christiania!! The story of Christiania is by itself a remarkable one. It all started out with Christiania being a Military base which was later on abandoned. In the year 1969-70 the local people tried to access the former military area by knocking off the fence. They wanted a playground for their children. However, the military and the municipal authorities raised the fences again and again. It was finally in 1971, that the locals got a playground and the hippies, squatters and the like got their Freetown. They simply knocked of the fences and fully occupied the military barracks. How the hippies got to know of this place is another interesting story! In the year 1970 an exhibition took place at Charlottenborg called “Noget for Noget” (Give and Take), where all sorts of hippies, freaks and people into macrobiotics showed themselves off, sold their goods and exhibited their art, including theatre, pictures,…etc. An alternative newspaper called Hovedbladet (Head Magazine) was published in connection with the exhibition. One of the articles discussed the abandoned military barrack in Badsmandsstraedes kaserne and put forward thousands of possible ideas for their use, not the least as homes for the numerous young people who were unable to find accommodation elsewhere. The article resulted in a massive immigration of people from all sections of society, who came to create an alternative life based on communal living and freedom. This was the birth of Christiania.

At the entrance of this Freetown you pass through an arch with Christiania written on it in bold. It gives you a feeling of a different world altogether. A hippy culture awaits you with a mixture of colorful yet very anarchic lifestyle. It was very difficult for me to grasp and let the surroundings sink in as the whole place looks like some run down park from a bygone era. A place that was so very different from the city life I was in just a few minutes ago. Interestingly the same arch on the other side as you exit reads as ‘now you are entering EU’!! (European Union)

As you walk the Pusher Street you will find people drugging themselves and drug vendors selling out in the open! That’s what you call people taking freedom too seriously! Photography on this street is strictly prohibited. So it’s advisable to keep your cameras in its case else they might ask you themselves! The Christianites are looking at legalizing cannabis however are against hard drugs like cocaine, heroin, ecstasy….etc. While we were walking with our local friend, who had clearly advised us to keep our camera in the case, we saw two ladies who were also visiting being told by the drug sellers to keep their camera in the bag!! No one wants their snaps to be taken inside as then the law can catch them easily once they are outside Christiania!!

I found graffiti, mural painting,.. etc on the walls as I walked the streets in the Freetown Christiania. There were shops selling clothes, ear rings and other such trinkets, coffee shops and restaurants. I was quite amused to read “the safest café” poster on one of the cafes. On asking I learnt that this particular café was raided by police officials for drug trafficking some 6000 times since year 2004!! And they changed this fact to their advantage by calling their café as the safest! Creative I must say! There was also a stage area where they held there functions and music fests…. etc. They even have their own theatre group called Solvognen (the Sun Wagon).

Christiana has its own flag which is red in color with three yellow dots representing the dots in the “i”s in “Christiania”. The colors were supposedly chosen because when the original squatters took over the former military base, they reportedly found a large amount of red and yellow paint! I bought a fridge magnet of the flag worth 10 Danish Kroner from one of the souvenir shops at Christiania. Though Danish Kroner is accepted in this Freetown, they have their own local currency called Lon. They even have their local TV and radio called Christiania TV and Christiana Radio respectively! I was truly amazed with this place.

The legal status of Christiana has remained a question mark with different Danish governments trying for their removal. However, none of their attempts have been successful so far. Since 1994, residents have paid taxes and fees for water, electricity, trash disposal,… etc. while the Danish Defence Ministry still owns the land. Today Christiania has more than a million visitors yearly and is the third greatest tourist attraction in Denmark!! And to top it all – Christiania still considers itself a separate country – A Country within a Country!!!

Though the place doesn’t any more live upto its image of hip and happening yet if you do happen to be in Copenhagen don’t give it a miss. Particularly, the night life is supposed to be very hip & lots of good music with groupies is what is normal there. The experience is definitely worth it!

author: Priya Q