Birkerød

Birkerød (Danish: [ˈpiɐ̯kəˌʁøˀð]) is a town in Rudersdal Municipality in the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is surrounded by several lakes and small woodlands. Birkerød station is located on the Hillerød radial of the S-train suburban network.

Birkerød
Town
Birkerød Church
Birkerød
Location in Denmark
Coordinates: 55°50′20″N 12°25′48″E
CountryDenmark
RegionCapital (Hovedstaden)
MunicipalityRudersdal
Elevation
50 m (160 ft)
Population
 (2020)
 • Total20,823[1]
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
3460 Birkerød
Area code(s)(+45) 48

In 2010, the NGO Global Medical Aid was established in Birkerød. [2]

History

The parish of Birkerød contained the villages Birkerød, Kajerød, Bistrup, Ravnsnæs, Isterød, Høsterkøb, Sandbjerg and Ubberød.[3]

Birkerød became a railway town in 1868, when the Nordbanen railway opened a station here between Lyngby and Helsingør. This led to new growth and several brickyards opened in the area in the second half of the 19th century.[3] The rail line between Copenhagen and Hillerød was later converted to an S-train suburban line and construction of new residential neighbourhoods accelerated in the 1940s which, in time, made Birkerød merge with Bistrup to the south, Kajerød to the west and Ravnsnæs to the east.

Geography
Bikerød Lake
View on the Bistrup neighbourhood from Vaserne

Birkerød is bordered by 941-hectare Lake Furesø to the south and Lake Sjælsø to the north. The smaller Birkerød Lake is located just south of the railway station in the town centre. The approximately 86 hectares wetland Vaserne (in Danish) along the northeastern shores of Lake Furesø and the western part of Frederikslund Forest separate Birkerød (Bistrup) from Holte to the southeast. Bistrup Hegn is situated between Bistrup to the south and Birkerød to the north. Rude Forest is located to the east of Birkerød. Eskemose Forest at Lake Sjælsø, north of Kajerød, is the site of several natural springs.

Townscape
Bikerød Søhuse

Birkerød consists mainly of single family detached homes.

Tegnestuen Vandkunsten has designed a number of housing estates. Trudeslund (1980-81) is a co-housing community.[4] The concept was later developed further with Jystrup Savværk in Jystrup. The Langkjærgård development is from 1985[5] and Blikfanget was built in 1988-1989.[6] Søhuse (1995), a development of terraced housing, is located on a gently sloping site on the banks of Birkerød Lake.[7]

Culture and sports

Mantziusgården, the former state school, is now used as a local cultural centre. Activities include art exhibitions, concerts, theatre and stand-up comedy. The premises also comprise four open workshops with facilities for making graphic art, glass art, ceramics and weaving.[8] Other cultural Institutions includes Birkerød Library and the Local Historic Archives.

Birkerød Sports and Leisure Centre was built in 2007 and is located next to the indoor swimming hall and football pitches, both of which was renovated simultaneously. The new centre was designed by Schmidt hammer lassen and is used for a wide variety of activities, including team handball fitness and yoga as well as concerts and other cultural events. [9]

The local football club of IF Skjold Birkerød was founded in 1917, and currently plays the Danish 2nd Division East. Furesø Golf Club is based at Hestkøbgård in the western part of Birkerød. The club was established in 1974.

Education

Birkerød Gymnasium was founded as a private boys' school in 1868[10]. In 2007 it changed name to Birkerød Gymnasium, HF, IB og Kostskole (Birkerød Gymnasium, HF, IB & Boarding School). The name change is due to the additional education types added since the foundation of the school. The school has over 1000 students, 300 of those being International Baccalaureate (IB) candidates. It is currently the biggest public IB school in Denmark. There is also a boarding school with about 70 students living on campus. Most of these students have been expats earlier in their life and might still have family members living as expats around the world.

Since 2011, a Model UN at has been taking place annually at Birkerød Gymnasium. It is called BIGMUN (Birkerød Gymnasium Model United Nations) and it has attracted several hundreds of high-school students from around the world to debate as in the . At BIGMUN 2019, approximately 370 students from 33 different schools[11] around the world participated. These countries include: United States, Israel, Germany, Spain and more.

Buildings of worship
Birkerød Church

Birkerød Church is a traditional Danish parish church whose oldest parts date from the late 12th and early 13th century. The tower was built in the late 15th century, the current chancel in about 1500 and the porch in 1525.[12] The Parish of Bistrup was disjoined from that of Birkerød in 1963 and its church was inaugurated in 1967.

The property Nordvanggård housed a congregation of Sisters of the Precious Blood from the late 1950s until 2015. The Sisters belong to the German Province, the provincial house is in Neuenbeken near Paderborn. They also have a convent in Rønne on the island of Bornholm.[13] The building is now owned by Rudersdal Municipality and is temporarily used to house refugees.[14]

Transport

Rail

Birkerød station is located on the Hillerød radial of the S-train network. The stations is served by the E trains on weekdays and B trains on weekends.

Road

Lyngby Kongevej bisects Birkerød on its way from Copenhagen to Hillerød. The Hillerød Motorway passed Birkerød to the west and the Helsingør Motorway passes Birkerød to the east.

Bus

From Birkerød station:

From Bistrup:

Notable people
Aage Bertelsen, 1910
Erling Brøndum, 1974
  • Hørgen Sonne (1801 in Birkerød – 1890) a Danish genre painter; known primarily for his battle scenes
  • Aage Bertelsen (1873 in Næstved – 1945) a Danish landscape painter, worked for Kähler Keramik he settled in Birkerød
  • Thorkil Kristensen (1899 – 1989 in Birkerød) a Danish politician, finance minister, professor in national economy, and futurist
  • Axel Borup-Jørgensen (1924 – 2012 in Birkerød) was a Danish composer
  • Erling Brøndum (1930 – 2017 in Birkerød) a Danish journalist and politician, Defence Minister of Denmark from 1973 to 1975.
  • Hella Joof (born 1962 in Birkerød) a Danish actress and director [15]
  • Martin Ågerup (1966 in Birkerød) a Danish economist and the current president of the think tank CEPOS
  • Birgitte Hjort Sørensen (born 1982) a Danish actress, raised in Birkerød [16]
  • Sophie Løhde (born 1983) a Danish politician.

Sport

Twinnings

References
  1. BY3: Population 1. January, by urban areas The Mobile Statbank from Statistic Denmark
  2. "Global Medical Aid". Archived from the original on 2013-12-13.
  3. "Birkerød" (in Danish). Rudersdal Kommune. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  4. "Trudeslund". arkitekturbilleder.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  5. "Blikfanget, Birkerød". arkark.dk (in Danish). Langkjærgård. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  6. "Blikfanget, Birkerød". arkark.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  7. "Søhuse". arkitekturbilleder.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  8. "Kulturhus Mantziusgården" (in Danish). Rudersdal Kommune. Archived from the original on 14 November 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  9. "Birkerød Sports and Leisure Centre". Archtonic. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  10. "Historie". Birkerød Gymnasium (in Danish). Retrieved 2019-06-30.
  11. "BIGMUN 2020 | BIGMUN 2020". bigmunpilot (in Danish). Retrieved 2019-06-30.
  12. "Birkerød Kirke" (in Danish). Nordens Kirker. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  13. "About us". The Sisters of the Precious Blood. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  14. "Rudersdal Kommune køber tidligere kloster til midlertidig indkvartering af flygtninge" (in Danish). Rudersdal Kommune. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  15. IMDb Database retrieved 20 April 2020
  16. IMDb Database retrieved 20 April 2020

Sources

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