Falkoner Allé

One of the older houses on Falkoner Allé

Falkoner Allé (lit. English: Falconeer Avenue)is one of the main streets of the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. Continuing Allégade, it extends nort from Frederiksberg Town Hall Square to Agade where it turns into Jagtvej. The street takes its name after the Royal Falconry which was located in the area. Remains of the buildings are still found behind the buildings at No. 112–120.

History

The king's falconry

The street was founded in about 1670 as a driveway to Falkonergården, Christian V's new falconry. The falcons, peregrine falcons brought home from Iceland, were used as gifts for foreign rulers by the Danish kings on thir journeys abroad. The road was originally had a gate in each end but it was opened to the public after Hømarken (literally "Hayfield"), an area to the north belonging to Ladegården, a farm under Copenhagen Castle, was auctioned off in lots to wealthy citizens from Copenhagen who built their country houses on the land.. The Royal Falconry closed in 1810 and the last falcons were gifted to the Portuquese coirt. The buildings were then used as a vax candle manufactury but was later torn down except for a single wing which is still seen in the alley between No. 112 and No. 120.

Urbanization

Frederiksberg's first town hall

The first houses along the tree-lined avenue were built in about 1850 but until 1859 Falkoner Allé And Jagtvej makred the so-called Demarcation Line which enforced restrictions on construction of buildings outside Copenhagen's City Walls. Frederiksberg's two first public schools were built in the southern end of the street, on the west side, and were in 1886 joined by Frederiksberg's first town hall which later took over the buildings.

An illustration from Illustreret Tidende showing the Ruben Textile Factory in 1879

The east side of the street was dominated by factories and small workshops: The Ruben Textile Factories opened in 1859, on the corner with Rolighedsvej. emplowing more than 500 workers by 1890. Frederiksberg Iron Foundry existed from 1872 to the mid-1950s. Further north but also on the east side, between Rolighedsvej and Ladegården, was a beer garden and entertainment venue, founded in about 1850, which survived until 1907.^[1]

The first apartment buildings in the street were built in about 1880. Many of the earliest buildings, typically just two storeys tall, were soon replaced by taller structures. By 1910 the street appeared fully developed.

20th century changes

A fairly large number of the old buildings disappeared in the middle of the 20th century to make way for modern ones. The Ruben Textile Facctory was demolished in 1938 while the old town hall and Frederiksberg Iron Foundry survived until the 1950s.

Notable buildings and residents

Falkoner Center, a hotel and conference venue, has replaced Frederiksberg's old town hall on the corner with Howitxvej. It was completed in 1959 and modernized in 1987. Frederiksberg Gymnasium is located at Falkoner Plads ("Falkoner Square"), an urban space located to the rear of the centre. The Frederiksberg Centre, a shopping mall, is located at No. 21.

Hostrups Have, a Modernist residential complex, enclosing a garden space, is located on the corner with Rolighedsvej.

Sculptury

On Kejserinde Dagmars Plads (literally "Empress Dagmar's Square), the small space opposite Frederiksberg Centre, stands the sculpture Amor and Psyche by Pontus Kjerrmans and in 2013 a Russian society offered to donate a bust of Dagmar for the site.^[2]

41–45 Falkoner Allé

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Falkoner Allé.

• Falkoneraleens historie, history and old photos from the street (in Danish)