Copenhagen (
København, originally Køpmannæhafn = "merchants' harbor") was the pre-Rash capital of Denmark. By Year 0, it was spread approximately half on the island of Sjælland (Zealand) and half on the much smaller island of Amager. Its pre-Rash importance and the fact that it is comparatively easy to reach from Öresundsbro base both by ship and by the Öresund Bridge made it the prime objective both for the Danish reclamation attempts around Year 80, and the protagonists' expedition in Year 90.
Pre-Rash History[]
Panorama of central pre-Rash Copenhagen
As a settlement, Copenhagen appeared in the 11th (archeological finds), resp. 12th (historical documents) century, though its location has apparently been home to humans since the Stone Age. The detailed history of the city repeatedly goes through phases of being a hub of merchant shipping, a long-standing capital to its country, besieged by foreign fleets and armies, erecting fortifications and defenses, seeing other forms of devastation (plague in 1711, fires in 1728 and 1795), and reconstruction and development.
By Year 0, the Municipality of Copenhagen consisted of ten districts (including Amager Øst) surrounding both the independent municipality of Frederiksberg and Freetown Christiania, whose degree of independence is a matter of continuing dissent. The municipalities of Tårnby (including the suburb of Kastrup) and Dragør cover the remainder of Amager.
Traffic[]
For the connections that led off Sjaelland, please see the corresponding section in the article on Amager.
Besides it being connected to means of long-distance travel mainly via the international airport in Kastrup with its flights, international railway station, and the European Route E20 passing by (on to the Öresund Bridge and Sweden), the shipping activity in its namesake harbor, and the possibility to travel its streets by car, Copenhagen offered several systems of public transport.
An innermost-city snippet of movia's bus lines map showing the Havnebussen (dark blue line), lines operated by terrestrial buses (in yellow, red, and light blue), and railroad lines (dashed grey) and stops ("M" for Copenhagen Metro, "S" for the S-Train, and green squares for other regional and local trains)
The S-Train urban transit operated about 170 km of dual tracks covering the Greater Copenhagen area, with the notable exception of Amager. Another urban transit system, the Copenhagen Metro, with a 20 km long system of tracks in Y0 and plans and activities in place to have had it extended to 35 km by 2019, served the inner districts of the city. Additionally, regional and local trains - also tied into the same tariffs and ticketing system, Rejsekortet - helped to tie the city proper into the metropolitan area.
Between 1863 and 1972, Copenhagen also had tram lines, but they were discontinued in favor of buses. By year 0, movia operated not only the normal buses of the city (and some local railway lines) but also the "Havnebussen" (lit. "harbor buses") ferry line on the canal separating Sjælland and Amager.
In 2010, an ad campaign of the city's zoo made the "Copenhagen snake bus" an attraction known the world around. Actually, the campaign by Bates Y&R had other public transport vehicles wrapped in vinyl foils with similar designs as well. The campaign was reportedly run on the occasion of a new reptile house opening at the zoo, and resulted in attendance exceeding the most optimistic estimates by 30%. It is also said to have caught passers-by's attention to the point of a series of traffic accidents happening around vehicles carrying the ads.
Last not least, Copenhagen is renowned as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world.
Books[]
Copenhagen was home to a plethora of libraries and archives, from large ones distributed over several sites like the Royal Library or the Rigsarkivet to districts' local libraries or special-topic ones, e.g., the Brønshøj Library in Brønshøj or the library of the Goethe-Institut primarily with material in German.
Post-Rash History[]
The first part of Copenhagen that appeared in the comic is Amager Øst, one of the city's districts that is located on Amager, where the expedition collected their first books (at "spot 24", and possibly The Fictional School) and set up camp for the night and/or on-foot missions (at Kastrup Fortet and near the supply dock).
The Danish reclamation attempts about ten years earlier have left behind said supply dock, but the main activity happened in Kastrup and at the airport South of it, outside of Copenhagen proper.
In chapter eight
, the cat-tank started moving through Christianshavn onto Slotsholmen, and thus into the central district of Copenhagen, Indre By. According to Lallis reports, the only still-usable bridge between Christianshavn and Indre By is the Knippelsbro, and even that requires a rather loose definition of "usable". However, an unexpected storm's snowdrifts prevent them from reaching the intended camp site, Ørstedsparken. Lalli resumes scouting and guides the tank to Amalienborg instead.
In order to investigate on some unknown drug they found in Amalienborg, Mikkel makes an (unauthorized) trip to Kastellet, which rouses the ghosts there. The next evening, a massive ghost attack forces the expedition to leave Amalienborg, and running a troll over escalates things to the point where they have to leave the city altogether. They follow the train tracks out of Copenhagens central station until they reach more rural areas of Sjælland.
Points of Interest[]
The Royal Library[]
Considering the interest our heroes have in books, it stands to reason that they would find the Royal Library - which double-served as the library of the Copenhagen University, as well as Denmark's National Library - particularly interesting. It was distributed over four sites on Sjælland and one on Amager and, taken together, boasted an almost-complete collection of all Danish books printed since 1482.
The main site is the Black Diamond, built in 1999, while the other four are the special libraries of the faculty they're co-located with. Their state in Year 90 is still unknown.
Academies[]
Besides Copenhagen University, Copenhagen was home to six more academies, from the IT University of Copenhagen with its 2,000 students to the Copenhagen Business School having ten times as many; Copenhagen University saw 39,000 students, 40% of all academies combined. Needless to say, these other universities had libraries of their own.
Fortifications[]
Schematic map of Kastellet
Copenhagen went through several generations of fortifications in its history, the latest and most far-reaching being designed in 1914. As a result, the installations were still prominent and quite well-preserved in Year 0, actually being monuments and tourist attractions in their own right.
The expedition crew already used Kastrup Fortet as a safe place, putting other parts of the fortifications to similar use seems likely.
Another notable fortification, but virtually in the center of the city, was Kastellet, one of the best-preserved star(-shaped) fortresses in Europe in year 0. According to documents discovered by the team, troops were initially holding Kastellet during the apocalypse but later abandoned it. Further findings suggest that Kastellet was a local distribution point of an experimental anti-Rash drug that failed to reach patients in time.
Parks and Zoo[]
The wildlife of Copenhagen and its surroundings in Year 90 is likely to differ from the native Danish fauna, not only due to the Rash still being a threat to most mammals, but also because of the animals that likely escaped when parks and the zoo were abandoned in Year 0.
As an example, the two deer species native to Denmark in Year 0 are the red deer and the roe deer, but the herd of deer seen on arc 1 page 317 shows the spots of fallow deer, which have been kept in the natural forest park Jægersborg Dyrehave North of Copenhagen.
Even more non-native species, though probably often less well-adapted to Copenhagens climate, might have come out of zoological garden of Copenhagen, located in the abovementioned municipality of Frederiksberg. The actual zoo premises might still be of interest in Year 90 due to the observation tower, but it is yet unknown whether it is still standing.
Amalienborg[]
After passing over the remains of the Knippelsbro and by the Christiansborg Palace, the expedition gets stuck shortly before their destination of the day, Ørstedsparken. Lalli finds them a new place to stay during the upcoming night, namely, Amalienborg Palace.
Amalienborg used to be a palace, i.e., did not possess fortifications and defenses beyond the troops guarding the royal family. However, it seems that in year 0, the passages between the four buildings have been barricaded with heavy debris (like entire buses), chainlink fence, and razor wire. The exact events leading to this activity remain unknown for now.
There do not seem to be any trolls at Amalienborg, but is inhabited by ghosts, and it is not quite clear yet whether they are a danger to the expedition.