Norrebro is one of the coolest neighborhoods in Copenhagen, the Danish capital. Separated from the strict center by the Peblinge Se canal, a couple of decades ago many young people from the city began to move there because housing prices were lower than in the historic core. The large immigrant colony also settled in the district. This led to a youthful and multiethnic environment, with a large number of cafes, food stores, bookstores, restaurants and cultural centers.
As usually happens, as the neighborhood gained popularity and became attractive, cheapness was left behind. But Norrebro is still one of the most fun places in Copenhagen. The existence of the Assistens cemetery contributes to this.
Most will consider that associating cemetery and entertainment is, to say the least, strange. However, the largest burial site in the Danish capital is a beautiful and quiet place, converted into a public park, where people come to walk their dogs, cycle along the straight dirt streets and even enjoy picnics in the few sunny and warm days. For much of the year, because it is an unpaved place and because of its not inconsiderable forest mass, Assistens is a tremendously cold place.
As a result of its long history, Assistens has hundreds of thousands of tombs. These are mostly burials and not niches, so there is an endless collection of tombstones that are worth knowing. To begin with, because some of the most prodigious minds of Danish and universal culture lie here, and there are always pilgrimages to the tombstones of the famous creator of children’s stories Hans Christian Andersen; the physicist Hans Orsted, discoverer of the physical relationship between electricity and magnetism; Dan Turell, crime novel writer; another outstanding physicist such as Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize winner for his contributions to the understanding of atomic structures; or the inevitable philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, the father of existentialism.
The cemetery has several entrances, due to its size. However, it is worth looking for the main one on Kapelvej Street because there are usually displays that provide a map with the location of the tombs of the most well-known people. Thus, you can locate the simple tombstone of the jazz saxophonist Ben Webster, that of the painter Jorn Larsen, the musician and filmmaker Jens Jorgen Thorsen or the singer and DJ Natasja Saad.
With one exception, the graves are very simple and usually consist of a more or less large tombstone. A few rudiments of Danish or a translator on your mobile phone will be good for reading the texts. The exception to such humility is the mausoleum of the former governor general of the West Indies (the Danish colonies in the Caribbean Sea), Peter von Scholten.
The Assistens cemetery is open every day from seven in the morning to seven in the afternoon and extends its hours until ten at night in the summer months. It is easily accessed using the metro to the Norreport stop, from where it is a walk of about 15 minutes.
