Word: christianias
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There is something different in the air at Christiania these days - the usual spicy aroma of marijuana smoke now occasionally mixes with the smell of tear gas and burning tires. That's because, more than three decades after Europe's oldest and largest commune was established as an antidote to "selfish society," Danish authorities are moving to close it down. More than 90 people were arrested a few weeks ago after groups of youths fought running battles with police, throwing bottles and cobblestones and burning homemade barricades. The riot, a rare occurrence in this normally placid Scandinavian country, was prompted...
...Christiania sits on prime real estate in Copenhagen's upmarket Christenhaven neighbourhood, and Denmark's conservative government wants to reclaim the territory for an ambitious housing project...
...have a lump in our throats," concurs Bjarne, who has come from Copenhagen's famed hippie area Christiania to show his sympathy...
...just have to know where to walk. Step one: cross the Aker River. Before the 1624 fire that destroyed almost all of medieval Oslo, downtown was actually several kilometers east of the narrow, meandering stream. King Christian IV rebuilt it to the west and renamed it Christiania after himself. (In 1924, the city reverted to the original name, derived from the Old Norse words As (God) and lo (field).) Today, the commercial center and most of the tourist destinations are west of the Aker, and one of the few attractions that lures visitors over the river is the Edvard Munch...
Ibsen himself spent the last six years of his life, unable to write, staring out of his window in Christiania. "Leave that to me," he snapped at a visitor who asked how he felt about God. And one day, when a nurse announced that he was feeling better, the old curmudgeon found the ultimate putdown. "On the contrary!" he said, and died. · Brad Darrach