Frue Plads

Frue Plads (literally "Square of (Our) Lady") is a public square located on the north side of the Church of Our Lady in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It occupies a rectangular space which is bounded on the other sides by University of Copenhagen's main building to the north, Nørregade to the west and pedestrianized Fiolstræde to the east.

In the Middle Ages, Our Lady's Square was located a little further to the north while the current square occupies the grounds of Church of Our Lady's graveyard. A new residence for the Roskilde Bishops was built on the square in about 1420, shortly after Eric of Pomerania had taken over Copenhagen Castle. After the Reformation, University of Copenhagen took over the building complex. It was later expanded with various new buildings.

In 1644, Simon Paulli took the initiative of converting one of the university's buildings overlooking Church of Our Lady's graveyard into an anatomical theatre, Domus Anatomica, although Paulli did not hold his first public lecture until 3 March 1645. The building was completely destroyed in the Copenhagen Fire of 1728 and subsequently replaced by Theatrum Anatomico-chirurgicum on Købmagergade.

The British bombardment of Copenhagen on 3–5 September 1807 hit the area hard. Its main building and the professorial residences on the corners of Fiolstræde and Store Kannikestræde were destroyed by fire together with the church. It was subsequently decided not to reconstruct the graveyard but to create a new square in its place. Christian Frederik Hansen, who was responsible for the rebuilding of Church of Our Lady, was also charged with the design of a new building for Our Lady's School on Fiolstræde at the eastern end of the square. The school wished to change its name to Copenhagen Cathedral School but this was rejected after protests from Roskilde Cathedral School and the name was instead changed to Metropolitan School in 1917. The building was taken over by the university when the school moved to new premises in Nørrebro in the 1930s.

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