Fortification Parks

PROMPT: What functions does public urban greenspace perform in a city in general, and specifically in Copenhagen?

Though Copenhagen is a major city, the number and size of green-spaces for citizens to utilize is incredible.  The many greenspaces make Copenhagen more than just a busy metropolis.  Copenhagen is a great model for a functioning, peaceful, and green city.  Citizens utilize the local urban greenspaces for a multitude of different activities and purposes.

The parks we visited included Kastellet, Østre Anlæg, Bostanisk Have, and Ørstedsparken and Amaliehaven. These parks (minus Amaliehaven) are refered to as the Fortification Parks. This is because the old fortification surrounding Copenhagen was destroyed and made into parks.

What was intriguing about each park was the diversity.  There were distinct differences in the feel to the park, plants growing, age of people, amount of people visiting the park, and the activities that each park offered.

Amaliehaven was very geometric with its sharp clean-cut boarders, walkways, and trimmed hedges.  The walls on the first and second level gave the park a feeling of seclusion despite being next to a major road in the city.  This barrier gave the park a formal but calming and quiet atmosphere.  I noticed this park mostly being used for reading and strolling.

Kastellet is a park along with an active military base in the center.  And yes, you can walk on the base and they don’t stop you (…that is definitely not allowed in the U.S).  The green park surrounded the military base and was on higher grounds.  The single pathway winding around the base was long, continual, and in a star shape.  People were jogging, picnicking, reading about the war memorials, and enjoying the view from above.  

Østre Anlæg was a beautiful park that didn’t seem to belong in a busy metropolis.  Waterfalls, three lakes, benches, hidden pathways, animal-life, and beautiful plants covered the grounds.  Along with these serene things, Østre Anlæg had 2 basketball courts, blacktops, open fields, kids playgrounds, and many excited children playing.  This park seemed to appeal to all age groups because of the variety of amenities and resources offered.

Botanisk Haven was a beautiful park with rich and vibrant colored plants and flowers.  This park displayed more flowers than any other park previously seen.  It was a very organized, strict man-made layout.  Signs and tags labeled every last flower and plant.  Many tourists were there along with photographers, families, students, and maintenance workers. 

A large pond in the center Ørstedsparken was very visually appealing.  The pathways wrapped around and featured many statues, one of which included Ørsted himself.  This park, similarly to Østre Anlæg, seemed very out of place.  When you stepped in and down the slope to the lake, little city noise could be heard.  What was particularly interesting was the water feature in the park.  Just above, on higher grounds, was a play area for children and recreation.  A stream ran through this area (the children were particularly fond of this) and then eventually ran into the green nature part of the park.  The water feature really intertwined the loud, busy, and fun space with the serene pond and garden. 

 

Thinking back on the 5 parks we visited today, it’s clear to me that every park serves a different purpose.  The many parks Copenhagen offers allow every person to experience nature in different ways.  While some parks may feature a part of history, be a spot for walking a dog, reflecting, playing ball, getting away from the busy city, or learning, no one clear function can define a park. 

Early Denmark: Sagnlandet Lejre

Today is the first day of class. We visited Sagnlandet Lejre also known as “Land of Legends.”  This beautiful National Park located near Roskilide, Denmark is comprised of reconstructions of an Iron Age village, Viking marketplace, hunter-gatherer sites, and an 18^th century farmstead.  It is a living history and historical reenactment site which makes learning much more interactive and enjoyable. Many archaeologists travel to Lejre to partake in experimental archaeology, which focuses on testing and replicating feasibility of ancient cultures performing various tasks or feats. 

PROMPT: Summarize the impact that the Danish landscape has had on the Danish as a people, and vice versa.  

You cannot separate the Danish culture from the landscape.  The two are very intertwined and have had and still have enormous influence on one another.  Learning about the progression of the land, the people, and the way of living over time was particularly interesting to me.

Denmark remained uninhabited until around 7000 B.C.  When the first people began emerging in Denmark, they were hunter-gatherers. Hunter-gatherers are always on the move. Their movement was dictated by food availability..basic survival. In the case of these early Danes, this was reindeer.  They could depend on the predictable movement of reindeer to provide meals for a few seasons.  The hilly landscape gave hunters an advantage because the reindeer tended to gather in the low spots.  This made attacking the reindeer easier and increased their chances for a successful hunt. The temperature at this time was rising and the local vegetation was changing.  With rising sea levels, traveling farther distances became more difficult (ex. one could no longer trek from Denmark to England on foot).  As temperatures rise again, once familiar animal and plant life changed.  The people were consistantly adapting to the constantly changing climate and shape/quality of the land. Temperatures continued to rise and fish & mussels became the main sources of food. 

The temperature eventually began to drop (a total of a few degrees).  People were less dependent on fish and mussels. A new but not unfamiliar concept came into play during this time. This concept was farming. People in Greece and Italy had been farming for more than a millennium before the Danish. The early Danish were quite slow getting on the farming bandwagon… but with good reason. Farming, compared to fishing, took a long time to get going and it was extremely hard and unknown manual labor. This is the first time where the early Danish were not really classified as hunter-gatherers.  In this old lifestyle, the people were required to adapt their lifestyle to their surrounding.  When farming began, people could finally choose their own surroundings. Their surroundings and environment could be designed around what they needed. They had more control.  Because of this, permanent houses began to emerge eventually leading into villages and then cities.

Thinking about how the early settlers handled the land is really interesting and intricate.  The hunter-gatherers of early Denmark did not (or very rarely) tried to manipulate the land. Rather, they let the natural landscape and climate dictate their way of life.  They worked with what they were given and eventually made it into an optimal space for agriculture and success. 

The group walking to the next site.  The Land of Legends has over 106 acres of beautiful land

An oxen skull perched on top of a stick in a sacrificial bog. 

Me on top of the beautiful hill overlooking some of the last remaining "untouched" Denmark.