Christianshavns Torv

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

Christianshavns Torv traces its history back to Johan Semp's 1617 plan for the layout of Christianshavn to be a fortified market town. It was originally known as Børnehustorv after Børnehuset, a royal orphanage which was established in 1622 on its east side. A blue-painted water post was installed in the square in 1633. It was fed by a lead pipe which brought water all the way from Peblinge Lake on the other side of the harbour.

The institution was gradually converted into a prison. The old building was replaced by a new one designed in the Baroque style by Philip de Lange and constructed between 1739 and 1742.

A police station opened in the square in 1815. One of six new local police stations, it covered the Christianshavn and Amagerbro area. It was based in Jacob Bastians Købmandsgård (Jacob Bastian's Commerce House), at No. 1, on the corner of the square and the canal.

Lange's building was demolished in the early 1860s to make way for a new prison building completed in 1864 to designs by Niels Sigfred Nebelong. From 1870 it was known as Christianshavns Straffeanstalt (Christianshavn Penitentiary) and served as a prison for women.

In 1868, the vegetable market at Amagertorv, where the Amager Women had sold their produce for centuries, was moved to Christianshavns Torv. It only existed for around two decades and was in 1889 replaced by a new vegetable market which opened at Vendersgade, later part of Israels Plads.

The coming of the new century brought change to the square. The buildings surrounding it were pulled down in the 1890s and early 1900s and replaced with new ones..

Christianshavn Penitentiary was demolished in 1928 in connection with a widening of Torvegade.

The Greenland Monument was created by Svend Rathsack in bluish granite from Bornholm and installed in the square in 1938. It consists of a Greenlandic hunter with his kayak, placed high on a plinth above two groups of working women.

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Wikipedia