1.
Fountain
–
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air to supply drinking water and/or for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were originally purely functional, connected to springs or aqueducts and used to drinking water and water for bathing and washing to the residents of cities, towns. Until the late 19th century most fountains operated by gravity, and needed a source of higher than the fountain, such as a reservoir or aqueduct. In addition to providing drinking water, fountains were used for decoration, Roman fountains were decorated with bronze or stone masks of animals or heroes. In the Middle Ages, Moorish and Muslim garden designers used fountains to create versions of the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France used fountains in the Gardens of Versailles to illustrate his power over nature, the baroque decorative fountains of Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries marked the arrival point of restored Roman aqueducts and glorified the Popes who built them. By the end of the 19th century, as indoor plumbing became the source of drinking water. Mechanical pumps replaced gravity and allowed fountains to recycle water and to force it high into the air, the Jet dEau in Lake Geneva, built in 1951, shoots water 140 metres in the air. The highest such fountain in the world is King Fahds Fountain in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, fountains are used today to decorate city parks and squares, to honor individuals or events, for recreation and for entertainment. A Splash pad or spray pool allows city residents to enter, get wet, the musical fountain combines moving jets of water, colored lights and recorded music, controlled by a computer, for dramatic effects. Drinking fountains provide clean drinking water in buildings, parks. Ancient civilizations built stone basins to capture and hold precious drinking water, a carved stone basin, dating to around 2000 BC, was discovered in the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash in modern Iraq. The ancient Assyrians constructed a series of basins in the gorge of the Comel River, carved in rock, connected by small channels. The lowest basin was decorated with carved reliefs of two lions, the ancient Greeks were apparently the first to use aqueducts and gravity-powered fountains to distribute water. In the 6th century BC the Athenian ruler Peisistratos built the fountain of Athens. It had nine large cannons, or spouts, which supplied drinking water to local residents. Greek fountains were made of stone or marble, with water flowing through bronze pipes, most Greek fountains flowed by simple gravity, but they also discovered how to use principle of a siphon to make water spout, as seen in pictures on Greek vases. The Ancient Romans built a system of aqueducts from mountain rivers and lakes to provide water for the fountains
2.
Copenhagen
–
Copenhagen, Danish, København, Latin, Hafnia) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. Copenhagen has an population of 1,280,371. The Copenhagen metropolitan area has just over 2 million inhabitants, the city is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand, another small portion of the city is located on Amager, and is separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the strait of Øresund. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road, originally a Viking fishing village founded in the 10th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a centre of power with its institutions, defences. After suffering from the effects of plague and fire in the 18th century and this included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Later, following the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing, since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure. The city is the cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark, Copenhagens economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology, pharmaceuticals and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö. With a number of connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterized by parks, promenades. Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the FC København and Brøndby football clubs, the annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, the Copenhagen Metro serves central Copenhagen while the Copenhagen S-train network connects central Copenhagen to its outlying boroughs. Serving roughly 2 million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the largest airport in the Nordic countries, the name of the city reflects its origin as a harbour and a place of commerce. The original designation, from which the contemporary Danish name derives, was Køpmannæhafn, meaning merchants harbour, the literal English translation would be Chapmans haven. The English name for the city was adapted from its Low German name, the abbreviations Kbh. or Kbhvn are often used in Danish for København, and kbh. for københavnsk. The chemical element hafnium is named for Copenhagen, where it was discovered, the bacterium Hafnia is also named after Copenhagen, Vagn Møller of the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen named it in 1954. Excavations in Pilestræde have also led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century, the remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen
3.
Denmark
–
The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
4.
Norse mythology
–
The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank a central cosmological tree, Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings, various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir, and the first two humans are Ask and Embla. These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events of Ragnarök, there the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, and two humans will repopulate the world. Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century, by way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology. In the modern period, the Romanticist Viking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, the myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents of Germanic Neopaganism. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland and this occurred primarily in the 13th century. The Prose Edda was composed as a manual for producing skaldic poetry—traditional Old Norse poetry composed by skalds. Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizes alliterative verse, kennings, the Prose Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after the Christianization process and also frequently refers back to the poems found in the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, in comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned. Numerous further texts, such as the sagas, provide further information, the saga corpus consists of thousands of tales recorded in Old Norse ranging from Icelandic family histories to Migration period tales mentioning historic figures such as Attila the Hun. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology may also lend insight, wider comparisons to the mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths. Of the mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, the god Odin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed, wolf and raven-flanked, and spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the worlds, Odin has a strong association with death, Odin is portrayed as the ruler of Valhalla, where valkyries carry half of those slain in battle. Odins wife is the powerful goddess Frigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son, Baldr. After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his death, his death is engineered by Loki, and Baldr thereafter resides in Hel. Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess and she is beautiful, sensual, wears a feathered cloak, and practices seiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain, and brings her chosen to her afterlife field Fólkvangr, Freyja weeps for her missing husband Óðr, and seeks after him in far away lands
5.
Gefjon
–
The Prose Edda and Heimskringla both report that Gefjon plowed away what is now lake Mälaren, Sweden, and with this land formed the island of Zealand, Denmark. In addition, the Prose Edda describes that not only is Gefjon a virgin herself, Heimskringla records that Gefjon married the legendary Danish king Skjöldr and that the two dwelled in Lejre, Denmark. The etymology of theonym Gefjon has been a matter of dispute, in modern scholarship, the element Gef- is generally held to be related to the element Gef- in the name Gefn, one of the numerous names for the goddess Freyja, and likely means she who gives. The connection between the two names has resulted in etymological interpretation of Gefjun as the giving one, the names Gefjun and Gefn are both related to the Matron groups the Alagabiae or Ollogabiae. Albert Murey Sturtevant notes that the other feminine personal name which contains the suffix -un is Njǫr-un, recorded only in the þulur. Whatever the stem syllable Njǫr- represents, the addition of the n- and un-suffixes seems to furnish an exact parallel to Gef-n, a Finnish word for brides outfit, trousseau may derive from Gefjons name. In the Poetic Edda, Gefjon appears solely in three stanzas of the poem Lokasenna, where an exchange occurs between Gefjun and Loki at a dinner feast, and the god Odin comes to Gefjons defense. Henry Adams Bellows comments that the text for these two lines is puzzling and that as a result they have been freely amended. This woman was of the race of the Æsir and her name was Gefjun, Gefjun took four oxen from Jötunheimr in the north. These oxen were her sons from a jötunn, gefjuns plough cut so hard and deep that it uprooted the land, and the oxen drew the land out into the sea to the west and halted in a certain sound. Gefjun there placed the land, and bestowed upon it the name Zealand, where the land had been taken from a lake stands. As a reference, the prose account presents a stanza from a work attributed to the 9th century skald Bragi Boddason, Gefjun dragged from Gylfi, denmarks increase, steam rising from the swift-footed bulls. The oxen bore eight moons of the forehead and four heads, in chapter 35 of Gylfaginning, the enthroned figure of High presents a list of goddesses. High presents Gefjun fourth, and says that Gefjun is a virgin, in relation, High notes that, like Gefjun, the goddess Fulla is also a virgin. At the beginning of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, Gefjun is listed among nine goddesses who attend a banquet for Ægir on the island of Hlesey, in chapter 32, Gefjun is listed among six goddesses who attend a party held by Ægir. In chapter 75, Gefjun is included among a list of 27 ásynjur names, in addition, Gefjun appears in a kenning for the völva Gróa employed in the skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinirs composition Haustlöng as quoted in chapter 17 of Skáldskaparmál. In chapter 5 of Ynglinga saga, a prose account relates that Odin sent Gefjun from Odense. There, Gefjun encountered king Gylfi and he gave her ploughland, Gefjun went to the land of Jötunheimr, and there bore four sons to a jötunn
6.
Nordre Toldbod
–
Nordre Toldbod is a waterfront area in Copenhagen, Denmark, located at the north end of Larsens Plads and just south of Kastellet. It takes its name after the house or toldbod which used to be located in the area. Among the modern buildings in the area are the headquarters of Mærsk, the area is adjacent to Churchill and Langelinie Parks. In Copenhagen, customs duties have been collected from ships since the 13th century, in 1617, the Royal Anchor Forge came into use as a custom house but when the kings grand plans for St. In 1628, it was moved back across the harbour where a new house had been constructed on a filled site north of the city. The entrance to the harbour was blocked with a barrier at night which marked the boundary between the northern and southern custom house areas. King Christian VI ordered the construction of a new house which was completed on the same site in 1734 to a Baroque design by Johan Cornelius Krieger. The quay at Nordre Toldbod also served as the place where foreign monarchs and it was also the place where the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen was received, with great festivity, on 17 September 1838, when he returned home after four decades in Rome. The last decades of the 19th century brought change to the area, the new Free Port was inaugurated just north of Kastellet in 1884. Christian VIs custom house at the boundary between Søndre and Nordre Toldbod was torn down in 1891 to make way for a new warehouse for goods in transit, in 1973 the majority of the buildings in the area were torn down. Most of the land was sold to A. P. Møller-Mærsk which built a new head office designed by Ole Hagen on the corner of Nordre Toldbod and Esplanaden between 1974 and 1979. To the south of that, a new building for the Customs Department was constructed to a design by Niels, the latter has later been taken over by the Danish Energy Agency. Vilhelm Dahlerups building from 1868 for the Port Authority marks the boundary of the quayside space at Nordre Toldbod. The design was inspired by Italian Renaissance architecture and the building consisted of two stories with a small one-story appendix topped by a balustrade on each side. The original building was extended with a floor by Einar Madvig. The building is now the office of By & Havn. Located just south of the Port Authority Building, the main entrance to the Nordre Toldbod area is a gate with gate pillars topped by lions. Just inside the gate, the road passes between two long one-story buildings with 8-arch arcades facing the traffic
7.
Kastellet, Copenhagen
–
Kastellet, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of the best preserved star fortresses in Northern Europe. It is constructed in the form of a pentagram with bastions at its corners, Kastellet was continuous with the ring of bastioned ramparts which used to encircle Copenhagen but of which only the ramparts of Christianshavn remain today. A number of buildings are located within the grounds of Kastellet, the area houses various military activities but it mainly serves as a public park and a historic site. King Christian IV of Denmark initiated Kastellet’s construction in 1626 with the building of an advanced post, at that time the fortifications only reached as far north as present day Nørreport station, and then returned south east to meet the coast at Bremerholm, the Royal Shipyard. However, part of the plan was to expand the area of the fortified city by abandoning the old East Rampart. This plan was not completed until the mid-1640s, shortly after King Frederick III succeeded King Christian IV, after the Swedish siege on Copenhagen the Dutch engineer Henrik Rüse was called in to help rebuild and extend the construction. The fortification was named Citadellet Frederikshavn, but it is known as Kastellet. Kastellet was part of the defense of Copenhagen against England in the Battle of Copenhagen, christen Købke, Danish painter associated with the Golden Age of Danish Painting, grew up in Kastellet and made many paintings of the area. During the German invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940, German troops landing at the nearby harbor captured The Citadel without resistance, Kastellet was renovated 1989–1999 with funds from the A. P. Møller and Wife Chastine McKinney Møllers General Fund. The Citadel has two gates, Kings Gate on the side, facing the city, and Norway Gate on the north side of the edifice. They are built in the Dutch Baroque style, and are on their interior side flanked by guardhouses, the Kings Gate is decorated with garlands and pilasters, and a bust of King Frederik III. The clock and two bells on the facade of the gate come from the Central Guard House at Kongens Nytorv and were installed in 1874 when the central guard moved to the Citadel. In front of the gate stand two so-called caponiers from where it was possible to keep assaulting troops under fire, the Norway Gate used to face open countryside outside the city, and has therefore been built to a more simple design. The caponiers of this gate were demolished in the late 19th century, the five bastions are named as follows, The King’s Bastion, The Queen’s Bastion, The Count’s Bastion, the Princess’s Bastion and the Prince’s Bastion. Smedelinien is a system of outworks, separating the inner and the moat, located to the south. It consisted of four ravelins and three counter guard interconnected by long, low earthworks, on Fyns Ravelin, one of the namesake forges has been preserved and is now used by the park authorities. Another forge was built on Falsters Counter Guard in 1709, rebuilt in 1888, it now serves as residence of military employees. The Commanders House served as the residence of the commander of Kastellet and it was built in 1725 in the Baroque style by architect and master builder Elias Häuser who also designed the first Christiansborg Palace which burned in 1794
8.
Langelinie
–
Langelinie is a pier, promenade and park in central Copenhagen, Denmark, and home of the statue of The Little Mermaid. The area has for centuries been a destination for excursions. Most cruise ships arriving in Copenhagen also berth at Langelinie Pier, for a long time, the stretch was a military area where civilians were not granted unrestricted access. Under a general order from 1819, soldiers were required to throw water in the head and on the breast, eventually a beach promenade and a park for the Bourgeoisie were made but with access only on the payment of a toll to keep the more common people out. Not until an uprising in 1848 did the area become open to everybody. The expansion of the city and the increasing industrialization soon made it clear that the harbour was becoming too small. In a plan from 1862 it was decided to dig out the area to access for the largest ocean-going vessels. A suggestion to make all of Amager into a zone was abolished. The beginning of the work was prompted by Germanys construction of the Kiel Canal that was begun in 1887, in 1894 the work was completed and Copenhagen had got an entirely new harbourfront. Langelinie became now a pier on the side of that harbour basin. The Langelinie Park stretches from Esplanaden in the south to Langelinie Marina, formally, it includes Kastellet although this site is generally referred to under its own name. The park contains numerous monuments, buildings, a marina, statues, among these are the Gefion Fountain, the Ivar Huitfeldt Column and The Little Mermaid. Langelinie Marina was established in the 1890s in connection with the foundation of the Free Port, Copenhagen rowing clubs have for many years had their base at the marina. Today only B&Ws and DFDS are left after ØKs passed their premises to Langelinie Marinas Boat Huild, the Langelinie Pier has a water depth allowing big ocean-going vessels to tie up. The area has a number of statues and memorials and these include a cast bronze sculpture polar bear with cubs and memorials for MS Jutlandia, Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen. The polar bear has some bullet holes at the head and they were made by a German soldier under the Occupation of Denmark
9.
Scania
–
Scania, also known by its local name Skåne, is the southernmost province of Sweden which consists of a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian Peninsula and some islands close to it. Scania is roughly equivalent to the modern Skåne County, the responsibility for overseeing implementation of state policy in the county is administered by the County Administrative Board. Within Scania there are 33 municipalities that are independent and separate from the Scania Regional Council which has its seat in Kristianstad, the largest city is Malmö, which is also the third largest city in Sweden. To the north, Scania borders the provinces of Halland and Småland, to the northeast Blekinge, to the east and south the Baltic Sea and Bornholm island, since 2000 a road and railway bridge, the Øresund Bridge, bridges the sound to the Danish island of Zealand. The HH Ferry route across the part of Øresund also remains as an important link between the Scandinavian Peninsula and Zealand. Scania is part of the transnational Øresund Region, Scania was part of the kingdom of Denmark up until the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The transition to Sweden was later confirmed by the 1660 Treaty of Copenhagen, the 1679 Peace of Lund, the last serious Danish attempt to invade the province failed in 1710, after the Battle of Helsingborg. The period 1658–1720 saw widespread violence by the Swedish militaries against the local population, the same was also true about the Danish military, though to a far lesser extent. The region did not form part of Sweden proper until 1720 and it was then divided in two counties and has since then been regarded as fully integrated in Sweden. Until the early 19th century, a policy of forced assimilation was employed by the Swedish government in what then had been a linguistically Danish region. Controversy relating to whether the Scanian dialects should be classified as a language or as Danish or Swedish dialects remains to this day. From north to south Scania is around 130 kilometres and covers less than 3% of Swedens total area, about 16% of Scanias population is foreign-born. With 120 inh/km2 Scania is the second most densely populated province of Sweden, the western part, along the coast of the Øresund, is by far the most populated part. The endonym used in Swedish and other North Germanic languages is Skåne, the Latinized form Scania occurs especially in British English as an exonym. Scania is the only Swedish province for which exonyms are still used in many languages, e. g. French Scanie, Dutch and German Schonen, Polish Skania, Spanish Escania, Italian Scania. For the provinces modern administrative counterpart, Skåne län, the endonym Skåne is used in English, in the Alfredian translation of Orosiuss and Wulfstans travel accounts, the Old English form Sconeg appears. The names Scania and Scandinavia are considered to have the same etymology, the name is possibly derived from the Germanic root *Skaðin-awjã, which appears in Old Norse as Skáney. According to some scholars, the Germanic stem can be reconstructed as *Skaðan- meaning danger or damage, Skanör in Scania, with its long Falsterbo reef, has the same stem combined with -ör, which means sandbanks
10.
Stockholm
–
The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
Media related to Gefion Fountain at Wikimedia Commons