City Hall Square in Copenhagen

The City Hall Square (Rådhuspladsen) is a public square in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark, located in front of the Copenhagen City Hall. Due to its large size, its central location and its affiliation with the city hall, it is a popular venue for a variety of events, celebrations and demonstrations. It is often used as a central datum for measuring distances from Copenhagen.

The City Hall Square is located at the south-western end of the pedestrian street Strøget. Apart from the City Hall, notable buildings around the square include Politikens Hus, the headquarters of national daily newspaper Politiken, and Industriens Hus, the headquarters of the DI.

The City Hall Square is located at the site of Copenhagen's old haymarket and the Western City Gate with surrounding fortifications. When the fortifications were disbanded in the 1850s, it was decided to use the vacant land for an exhibition area which played host to first the Nordic Exhibition of 1872 and later the Nordic Exhibition of 1888. Vilhelm Klein designed an exhibition building for the first exhibition which was built at the corner of Vesterbro Passage. The four-winged, two-storey building was built in red brick to a design which was inspired by Italian Renaissance architecture. In 1879 the centre of the complex was re-built into a large domed exhibition hall. On 1 January 1888 the haymarket moved to a new location outside Kødbyen, the new cattle and meat market which had opened in 1878.

In the 1880s plans were conceived to build a new city hall on the grounds and in 1888 the expo area was cleared and an architecture competition was held in early 1889. Apart from Nyrop who won the competition, Vilhelm Dahlerup and Valdemar Koch were among the participating architects. On 28 July 1894, the foundation stone was laid and when it was inaugurated in 1905, the square in front of it became one of the most central and important spaces of the city. It is often a venue for demonstrations and buskers, and several bars and nightclubs are located in the near vicinity. Rådhuspladsen also houses one of the city's bus centrals.