This is going to be an interesting one…

WTF is Freetown Christiania?

While it might seem like just some quirky hippie commune, Freetown Christiania is actually a self-proclaimed micro-nation within Denmark that operates by its own set of rules. It’s got its own flag (shown here), and the approximately 1,000 people who live within its borders apparently do not think of themselves as being Danish, but rather, as “Christianites.”

But let’s go back to the beginning of this improbable story. I think context is key here in order for this to make any sense.

The history here actually goes back quite far. As you may intuit from looking at the map below, the land formations here are not natural. In fact, it’s an old moat that dates back to the 1600s when it was originally constructed as part of a defense fortification for a city called Christianshavn, which was, at that time, separate from Copenhagen. Apparently this flower-esque land formation is still considered to be among the world’s finest surviving examples of defense works from that time period. However, it remained a military base—locally known as Bådsmandsstræde—until well into the 20th century. By 1971, the military base and barracks that sat here were all but abandoned, and that is where our story begins.

The story goes that a group of people, led by a guy called Jacob Ludvigsen, cut a hole in the fence and began squatting here, declaring it a new state. Our boy Jacob was a journalist and published a local magazine, where he printed this declaration, saying that the civilians had conquered 'The Forbidden City of the Military'. Bold move, Jake.

From that point on, Freetown Christiania basically became the wild west of Copenhagen—and probably all of Scandinavia (I’m not aware of anything this absurd in Norway or Sweden). It was known as a hot spot for drug dealing and drug use, which—it seems—was a bit controversial within the community of people that actually called this place home. Apparently, in 1979, 10 residents died of overdoses in the space of just 12 months, which prompted the rest of the local community to organize to try to push the drug dealers out and get help for the addicts among them. However, this effort didn’t do much to make Freetown Christiania any less unsavory, as it was the site of gang wars throughout the 1980s, which actually saw the motorcycle gang Hells’ Angels ousted at the hands of the “Bullshit Motorcycle Club,” which was the actual name of a Danish gang. However, in the late 1980s, the Danish police found somebody’s dismembered body in a “Bullshitters” bike shop, and intervened to break up the gang.

Even without the biker gangs, Freetown Christiania’s reputation as a violent drug den continued, with shootings—and one strange incident with a hand grenade—happening well into the 2010s, usually in relation to drug dealing. It was not until 2016 that there was much of a reckoning here. There was actually a shootout with the police that led to a more firm government intervention, as well as a plea to the local community to stop buying cannabis here. Asking nicely apparently worked quite well, because the drug trade supposedly decreased by about 75% after that. However, it’s still here, and I’ve read that there have been shootings here as recently as 2023.

So… I’m pretty sure I know the question that you’re asking, because it’s my question too.

HOW and/or WHY is the Danish government allowing this? Doesn’t this completely undermine their sovereignty that a bunch of freaking hippies have basically declared independence in the federal government’s back yard?

Well, their initial reaction was apparently to turn a blind eye to the whole thing.

It was not until 1976 that the Department of Defense actually brought a case to the Danish courts to have this land cleared—as if they should have even needed permission!—and it was not until 1978 that the courts actually granted this request. However, the government apparently then decided to delay evictions until a development plan had been agreed upon for what to do with the land next. In my research I kind of lost the thread on what was happening during the ensuing decade other than police periodically intervening in wars between rival biker gangs… but, incredibly, in 1989 Danish parliment officially declared what was happening in Freetown Christiania, to be LEGAL! They gave it the official temporary status of “social experiment” 😂 whatever that means!

At this point, I think I should pause and tell you that Freetown Christiania is not just full of a bunch of deadbeat, drug-addicted hippie anarchists. It actually does contain a lot of high-minded, idealistic, community-oriented people who are deeply invested this place. How they have so much bargaining power with the government is a mystery to me, but while I do not sympathize with them or identify with them, I also don’t want to vilify them. Aside from hospitals, schools, and social services, they run self-contained little community, with services such as recycling, trash collection, sewers, etc. And at every stage of the Danish government’s attempts to reckon with this oddity, Christianite activists have been canvassing, protesting, presenting proposals, re-presenting counter-proposals, etc… FOR DECADES. It seems that there is a large portion of these people who are extremely engaged politically.

Another interesting quirk of this place is that residency in Freetown Christiania is apparently by invitation only! So, you’d have to do some networking to get a seat at this table.

This seems destined to be a never-ending story, but I believe where things stand now is that the Danish government is insisting that the Christianites either purchase the land they are living on, or have it purchased out from under them. The concept of land ownership is apparently contradictory to Christianite values, so they set up a foundation to handle this, and have been making payments on the land since 2012. Basically, after 40 years of free rent, they have a mortgage now, which means they are no longer squatters, but legal land owners. However, the violence and drug trade here is still actively forcing occasional police intervention, which the Christianites do not appreciate… I would love for this to be adapted into some sort of Parks and Rec / Brassic hybrid. This could all make for some hilarious television. ANYWAY, enough preamble. Let’s see this place!

Visiting Freetown Christiania

When it comes to actually visiting Freetown Christiania, it’s a bit surreal how close it is to central Copenhagen. This place, as a stand-alone entity, looms quite large the imaginations of punk rockers and anti-establishment intellectual types around the world, but (I think) is rarely thought of in conjunction with the actual CITY of Copenhagen. It’s right here in the middle of everything! And yet, manages to feel very secluded once you arrive at its gates.

The walk over to Christiania took me through a couple new areas of the city that I hadn’t seen yet, but quite enjoyed. The canals with people relaxing on the boats in the summer sun is exactly what the travel shows promised me Copenhagen would be. But this yuppie bliss was a far cry from my destination…

Despite its reputation for drugs and violence, Freetown Christiania has never been a stranger tourists like me. Despite the occasional murder, it is actually a bit of a tourist attraction! However, counter-intuitively, there was a pretty strictly enforced “no cameras” policy inside Christiania… or so I thought. I remember seeing YouTube videos years ago of people who had actually hidden cameras on their person during a walk through Christiania, and even then sometimes they were discovered and accosted by some angry Danish hippie. These videos were typically shot on some dark day in the dead of winter, which made Freetown Christiania look absolutely dystopian… needless to say, I was fully expecting to come away from this experience without many photos.

Of course I brought my camera with me, just in case… but I wasn’t expecting to be able to use it very much.

Au contraire! Apparently Freetown Christiania has reversed this policy. There are even signs now saying that pictures are okay. There were also signs with cryptic messaging saying things like “Sadly, Freetown Christiania is no longer free… etc” that gave me the impression that my visit may have been happening just on the other side of some long-delayed event horizon wherein Freetown Christiania was forced to comply with the rules of Danish society… however, I can’t verify this for you.

All I can tell you is that my walk through Freetown Christiania was feeling a LOT safer than I had imagined it would.

But just then, a massive man with a thousand-yard stare and a big beard approached me. I’m 6-4, so when I say that some is massive, trust me. This guy must have been 6-7 or 6-8. He looked like the drunk helicopter pilot from Walter Mitty.

He walked straight up to me and mumbled something in Danish: “Leder du efter noget?” It was actually a bit intimidating. THIS was the Freetown Christiania I had been promised! 😂

“What?” I responded, taking out my ear buds.

“Do you speak Danish?”

“No”

“Are you looking for something?”

“…No”

The moment the word “no” escaped my lips, his gaze moved past me and he lumbered onward without another sound.

So, with that out of the way, let me show you the TOWN of Freetown Christiania! There is actually a little “town square” in here. In addition to all the converted military barracks (now rough-looking hippie warehouse apartment buildings), it also includes stores which do actually sell more than just arts and crafts! I went into one store that that looked like a hippie version of Home Depot; it actually sold lots of useful stuff like tools and lumber! There are also a couple of places to get food and coffee, but I skipped these because I wasn’t sure what sort of food sanitation regulations were being enforced here in this free-standing “micro-nation”. #sorrynotsorry. Here are a few photos of the town! The troll in the first photo sits at the main gate, greeting visitors and residents alike as they enter.

During my visit, which was relatively early in the day, they were setting up for a festival that was slated to take place that evening. A regular rotation of music festivals is apparently one of the most consistent services that Freetown Christiania provides to its surrounding community. I did not stick around for the music festival, but I was extremely impressed with the visual art that I found here.

I had thought this article was just going to be exploration of an interesting little place, but it quickly became clear that this was destined to be a street art article. Or, that is how I am choosing to categorize it at least. My favorite murals in Freetown Christiania are in the gallery below. Please appreciate the outrageous picture of the penis-come-to-life in the art gallery looking at paintings of what I can only assume are buttholes. When I saw this, I texted a photo of it to at least 5 people. 😂

Of course, no article with '“street art” in the title would be complete without an attempt to credit the artists responsible. Here is my attempt, but—as always—please let me know if you recognize the work of an artist not listed below!

Now, moving on from the murals…

If you will recall from the map I shared above, Freetown Christiania includes a long piece of land sitting atop what had historically been the ramparts of a centuries-old fortress fortification. At its narrowest point, it is maybe 50 meters wide before giving way to the ocean. And there is no bisecting bridge to provide easy access. It’s just 1 road surrounded by trees and ocean.

I walked down this road a little ways (it’s actually quite long!) and quickly started to get a bit confused. On paper, this should have been part of Freetown Christiania, but it felt very different from the “main town” through which I had entered. Out here, there were actually some nice houses! Each house was overgrown, quirky, and inviting. Occasionally I would see a group of people having lunch in a backyard and was surprised to see that they looked nothing like the massive drug-dealing viking that had approached me near the gate. They looked like cool people! And the tastefully overgrown, quirky aesthetic reminded me British Columbia’s Cortes Island, which absolutely fell in love with. I even came across a home that had a stable full of horses! So… it seems like there (1) is some money out here, and (2) perhaps my borderline-derogatory generalizations about Christianites need a bit more thought. I mean, I still think the whole situation is insane. If I were in government, I would absolutely not have allowed this. But I look at it with much kinder eyes when you eliminate the threat of violence from the equation. This part of Freetown Christiania was lovely.

This has been the micro-nation of Freetown Christiania!

+1 for anti-establishment types the world-over
-1 for the sovereignty of the Danish state

@Greenland… if a piece of Copenhagen can just declare independence and get away with it… I like your odds 👀

Honorable mention for track of the day goes to ‘Anarchy Camp’ by NOFX: one of many songs that reference this place. I just thought this place needed a more laid-back soundtrack. Copenhagen is a place where you can take deep breaths and let your guard down a bit. Albeit, slightly less so in Freetown Christiania. 😂

Up next: NORWAY 🇳🇴