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Facing Indre By and Slotsholmen across the waters of Inderhavnen, and linked to them by Knippelsbro bridge, is the island of Christianshavn . Nicknamed "Little Amsterdam" on account of its many small canals, cobbled streets, crooked houses and brightly painted facades, it's an easygoing area, and a pleasant place to hang out with a høcker beer while watching the wooden boats meander up and down the canals. Until the seventeenth century, however, Christianshavn didn't even exist. The area now occupied by the island was under water, creating a breach in Copenhagen's defences which left the city vulnerable to attack from the sea, until Christian IV reclaimed an arc of land facing Copenhagen and built a ring of defensive fortifications on it. The reclaimed land became the island of Christianshavn and an autonomous borough was created on it to house Dutch merchants, with a Dutch architect - Johan Semp - being employed to plan the new district, explaining the many features on Christianshavn today which are more redolent of Amsterdam than of Copenhagen. The Dutch merchants never arrived, however, and the island was instead distributed between rich Danish merchants and aristocrats, who moved into the elegant dwellings along the waterfront and Wilders Kanal, and the workers, who were assigned the dark and dingy areas between. Christianshavn's main thoroughfare, Torvegade , runs across the island from mainland Copenhagen in the north towards the island of Amager in the south - at right angles to the picturesque Wilders Kanal that flows down the centre of Christianshavn and divides the island in two. Christianshavns Torv , slap bang in the middle, is the district's busy central square - all buses crossing Christianshavn stop here and it's also the site of a new metro station due to open soon. On the northeastern corner of the island is the so-called "free city" of Christiania , whose improvised dwellings and community of alternative types have long been one of Christianshavn's main tourist attractions. At the far end of Christianshavn are the islands and former naval station of Holmen , now the site of many interesting new cultural developments and well worth exploring on a sunny afternoon.
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