Freetown Christiania

Christiania is defined by the massive, hand-painted wooden sign over the main entrance on Prinsessegade, which marks the transition into a self-governing district. In nineteen seventy-one, a group of squatters broke through the fence of this abandoned military barracks, claiming the land for a collective society. They established their own rules, independent of the Danish state, and spent decades fighting for the right to remain. Today, those original barracks serve as the foundations for homes built and modified by the residents themselves.