Assistens Cemetery
A paupers' overflow graveyard that became Denmark's most distinguished address — Andersen, Kierkegaard, and Niels Bohr all ended up here.
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Inaugurated in 1760 to absorb the dead from Copenhagen's overcrowded city churchyards, Assistens turned fashionable during the Golden Age and kept collecting notables well into the 20th century. It also functions as a genuine green lung in Nørrebro, where locals jog and sit among the headstones.
What to look for
- The graves of Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard — both Golden Age figures buried here as the cemetery shifted from pauper ground to prestige address
- Niels Bohr's plot — the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, one of the 20th-century arrivals who continued the cemetery's run of notables
- Headstones of American jazz musicians Ben Webster and Kenny Drew, who settled in Copenhagen during the 1950s and 1960s
Located in the Nørrebro district; the cemetery operates as a public greenspace, so it is walkable and open to casual visitors alongside those paying respects.
Assistens Cemetery is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Copenhagen, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Copenhagen pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Copenhagen
- The Little MermaidAt 1.25 metres tall, she is smaller than almost every visitor expects — and that gap between legend and reality is the whole experience.
- Parken StadiumA 38,000-seat national football ground with a retractable roof and a three-Michelin-star restaurant on the eighth floor.
- AmalienborgFour matching palaces share one octagonal courtyard — and the Danish king actually lives in one.
- Tivoli GardensOpen since 1843 on a royal permit granted because, as the founder told the king, people busy having fun don't think about politics.
- Christiansborg PalaceThe only building on Earth where parliament, prime minister, and supreme court share one address — and the king still drops by.
- Rosenborg CastleA 1606 royal summerhouse that ended up storing the crown jewels and standing in as emergency palace twice.