page_title: Skydebanehaven
section_title: The Shooting Society's shooting range
hierarchical_section_title: Skydebanehaven / History / The Shooting Society's shooting range
caption_attribution_description: English: Old drawing of the Royal Copenhagen Shooting Range in the 1890s, now the Skydebanehaven park behind the Museum of Copenhagen in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark
context_page_description: Skydebanehaven is a small public park in the heart of the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. Its name refers to the former shooting range of the Royal Copenhagen Shooting Society which used to be located on the site. The most distinctive feature of the park is the Neo-Gothic Shooting Range Wall which was constructed in 1887 to shield traffic on Istedgade from stray bullets. The other end of the park is bounded by the rear of the former headquarters of the Shooting Society, a Neoclassical mansion which has more recently housed the Museum of Copenhagen.
  Access to the park is either through a small gate in the Shooting Range Wall, through an unassyming gate next to Absalonsgade 14, or a third gate at the northeastern and of Matthæusgade. The section of the park located closest to Istedgade is occupied by a public playground. The Vesterbrogade ned of the park is dominated by lawns and flower beds.
context_section_description: The Royal Copenhagen Shooting Society was originally based in Kompagnistræde. 
  In the 1750s, it established a shooting range at a site outside the Western City Gate. In 1782 the society acquired a 3.5 hectare piece of land, stretching from present day Vesterbrogade to the beach just south of the city. The society also built a mansion, completed in 1787, which was to serve as a venue for its active social life.
  When Vesterbro started to develop in the second half of the 19th century, after the city had been allowed to develop beyond its now decommissioned fortifications, the City expropriated much of the Shooting Society's grounds. In 1887 a tall wall was constructed to shield newly established Istedgade from stray bullets from the shooting range. The wall was designed by the architect Ludvig Knudsen in a Neo-Gothic style. Knudsen also modernized the interior of the Shooting Society's mansion in the 1890s and added a small new wing towards the gardens.
caption: The shooting range with the new Shooting Range Wall in the 1880s
exif: {}