Grønningen, Copenhagen

Grønningen is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark, connecting Bredgade and the intersecting street Esplanaden to Oslo Plads in front of Østerport Station along the southwestern margin of the fortification Kastellet. It lends its name to the artists' cooperative Grønningen which was originally based in the street.

The triangular area between Esplanaden, Store Kongensgade (Nyboder) and Kastellet was from 1782 home to a ropewalk. It was later converted into a Guard Hussars barracks. At the turn of the 20th century, it was decided to demolish the outdated installation to make way for high-end apartment buildings. A competition was held and a plan for redevelopment of the area was adopted by the city on 29 June 1903. Demolishion of the barracks buildings began on 1 November 1905 and the area was sold to private investors shortly thereafter. A broad boulevard inspired by those of Haussmann in Paris replaced the outer moat of Kastellet and the smaller streets in the area were all named after localities associated with the island of Bornholm. The plan required all apartments facing Grønningen to have between six and 12 rooms while the rest of the apartments should have at least five rooms.

Construction began at the southern end of the street in 1905 and afterwards the buildings closest to Østerport Station followed. After that, sale of the expensive lots came to a standstill due to a surplus of apartments in the city at that time. In 1908, Copenhagen had a population of 400,000 and 10,000 vacant apartments.

A group of artists who had broken with Den Frie Udstilling received permission to erect an intermistic pavilion in one of the empty lots and took the name Grønningen after the street. The architect Carl Petersen designed the building which became colloquially known as "The Indian Cottage" (Danish: Indianerhytten) due to its eclectic style. It was pulled down after a few years and the artists had to find new premises elsewhere when interest in developing the lots resumed.

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