One thousand years of history awaits you on the medieval streets of Copenhagen. These are the same streets walked on by every generation of the world's oldest royal family, the same streets and canals which have inspired artists for centuries and been home and workplace to meticulous craftsmen and famous designers.
From its humble origins as a fishing village to its heyday as the glittering capital of the Danish Empire, to its current position as one of the world's premier design capitals and Scandinavia's pre-eminent city, the stories and characters of Copenhagen's history can be discovered in its sumptuous palaces, copper-roofed town houses and atmospheric cobbled squares.
Though there is evidence that Copenhagen existed as a settlement over 6,000 years ago, its first written record did not come until 1043.
At this time Copenhagen, then called simply Havn (harbour), was of little strategic or political importance but consisted merely of a small group of wattle and daub huts located between the present day Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square) and the sea. The occupation of the population consisted mainly of fishing the plentiful herring in Øresund, the narrow stretch of water separating Denmark and Sweden.
Gradually, however, the town began to grow in significance because of its en route position between the royal seat in Roskilde (west of Copenhagen) and the religious centre of the Cathedral of Lund in southern Sweden, an area that was also full of trading posts. It should be remembered that at this time southern Sweden was part of the Danish kingdom.
Copenhagen's growing prosperity, founded on the good herring catch in Øresund, attracted the attention of the tradesmen from Lübeck in northern Germany, who attacked the city twice in the mid-13th century. The inhabitants, however, simply picked themselves up and rebuilt under Bishop Jakob Erlandsen who at this point in time held the power.
Erlandsen also gave the city its first charter. The charter awarded the town's merchants special privileges in order to win their support in the power struggle against the king. Eighty years later, a land survey shows that the present day Gammeltorv was already an important meeting point, and that the population of the town was 5,000, many of them Germans.
In 1596, thousands of guests from Europe's noblest families gathered at the coronation of the man who was to become probably Denmark's best-known king, Christian IV.
A man of great appetites and ambition, Christian IV is known as the Architect King, and he was responsible for many of Copenhagen's finest buildings and quarters (Rosenborg Castle, the Round Tower, parts of Christiansborg Castle, the Stock Exchange, Nyboder and Christianshavn among them). He also caused Denmark's fall to virtual bankruptcy.
His relationship with Sweden, beginning with his declaration of war in 1611, was his downfall. The battles between the two neighbours raged long after his death in 1648, ultimately resulting in the loss of much of Denmark's empire.
Following a plague in 1711, Copenhagen was hit by further disasters in the 18th Century in the shape of two fires that ravaged the city in 1728 and 1795.
The first started in a candle maker's shop in Nørreport and went on to destroy 1,700 houses as well as the original town hall and the old University building.
The fire was exacerbated by the ineptitude of the fire brigade who were drunk on the money they had received for carrying out fire drills, and by a local brewer who in his rush to help put out the fire left an oil lamp burning in his stable and started another.
The story of the 1795 fire is similarly unfortunate: the firemen could not find the keys to the pump house, and because of the spreading fire, the spire of St Nikolaj Church toppled down on the surrounding houses.
However, the fires did give the town an opportunity to rebuild, replacing the low-rise wooden housing with grander stone buildings.
Among the darkest days in Copenhagen's history were the two occasions it fell victim to bombardments by the British navy.
The first occasion arose after Denmark had entered into an armed neutrality pact with Russia, Sweden and France against England. As a result, Admirals Nelson and Parker in April 1801 led a fleet into the Øresund and commenced bombarding the city with canon fire.
The Danes only survived thanks to a change in the direction of the wind which left some of the English fleet at risk of being driven ashore.
Eventually, King Frederik VI surrendered, but the British came back six years later, this time led by the Duke of Wellington who wanted to prevent the Danish navy from being commandeered by the French.
The second bombardment was far worse, resulting in 300 houses being destroyed and the spire of the Church of the Blessed Virgin (Vor Frue Kirke) falling down.
On 9 April 1940, Hitler's troops landed at Kastellet and, meeting little resistance, commenced an occupation that was to last the rest of the War. Germany moved 200,000 troops into Denmark, which it saw as a useful source of agricultural produce.
Despite the best efforts of the Danish resistance movement, and the secret evacuation of nearly 7,000 Danish Jews to Sweden, Denmark resigned itself to being ruled by Berlin. Liberation by the British army, led by Field Marshall Montgomery, came on 4 May 1945.
The present Queen, Margrethe II, was born shortly after the occupation began, on 16 April 1940.
On the 1st of July 2000, a bridge and tunnel between Denmark and Sweden opened across the Øresund from Kastrup to Malmö, Sweden's third largest city.
The 16-km (10-mile) Øresund connection cost DK27bn ($3.3bn) to build and features a 4-km (2.4-mile) tunnel and a 7.8-km (4.9-mile) road and rail bridge.
The rail journey from Copenhagen to Malmö now takes 35 minutes, with Stockholm just four-and-a-half hours away.
The opening of the Bridge also heralded the dawn of a new spirit of co-operation within what is now known as the Øresund Region (encompassing Copenhagen, Malmö and their surrounding regions).
In October 2002, Copenhagen opened its first metro line running fully automated from east to west. This construction was combined with a major city development called Ørestad in the south of the city.
The first part of the Metro runs from Nørreport to Lergravsparken and from Nørreport to Ørestad. In May 2003, phase 2A from Nørreport to Frederiksberg opened. Phase 2B from Frederiksberg to Vanløse opened later that year.
The last part of the Metro, running to Copenhagen Airport, opens in 2007. It will then take less than 20 minutes to reach the airport by metro from central Copenhagen.
