Things to see in Freetown Christiania
A walkable order
- The main gate on Prinsessegade — the community’s rules are posted on it. Read them before you walk past.
- Den Grå Hal, the Grey Hall — the big hall in a former riding house, used for concerts and the Christmas market.
- Loppen — the live-music venue, in the same cluster of old military buildings.
- Nemoland — the outdoor café and stage, with free concerts on summer Sundays.
- Christiania Art Gallery and the workshops around it — this is where the cargo trike was designed in the 1980s before it became a Copenhagen standard.
- ALIS Wonderland — the skate bowl, worth five minutes even if you have never stood on a board.
- Badehuset and Christiania Bryghus — the sauna and the brewery.
- The ramparts (Volden) and the lake — the quiet, green half, with self-built houses along the water and Green George, the recycled-wood sculpture, standing among them.
- The yellow sign at the main gate on the way out, reading "You are now entering the EU".
Next door, in Christianshavn
Do not treat the gate as the end of the walk. The Church of Our Saviour, with the spiral staircase winding up the outside of its spire, is a few minutes away and several tours stop there. So are Christianshavns Kanal and its houseboats, Strandgade and Asiatisk Plads, with the Copenhagen Opera House across the water on Holmen. The walking tours page covers which routes take in which.
Give the ramparts at least half of whatever time you have. The built centre is the part everyone photographs, and the water is the part people remember a month later.
How long this takes
The centre alone is an hour at a gentle pace. Adding the ramparts and the lake makes it two, which is the length of the standard guided walk and no accident. There is a longer breakdown on how long to spend, and best time to visit covers when the venues are actually awake.
Seeing it with somebody who knows the buildings
Half of this list is old military architecture repurposed by hand, and without a guide it is just sheds. The two-hour Christiania and Christianshavn walk pairs the Freetown with the Church of Our Saviour and the Opera House, in a group capped at ten. If you would rather cover more ground, the bike tours reach the Little Mermaid and Nyhavn in the same outing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main thing to see in Christiania?
Den Grå Hal is the landmark building, but the ramparts and the lake, with self-built houses along the water, are what most people remember. The old Pusher Street stretch is an ordinary walkway now — see Pusher Street.
Can I go inside the Grey Hall or Loppen?
They are working venues rather than exhibits, so it depends what is on. Opening hours across the Freetown run later in the morning, roughly from 10–11am, so an early visit finds them shut.
Is there anything to see outside the gate?
A good deal. The Church of Our Saviour, Christianshavns Kanal and Asiatisk Plads are minutes away, and the Opera House sits across the water. Several guided tours take in both sides.