Section 01 / Mode: Wander
01
Awesome Places.
Eight places that explain Køge faster than a brochure — a ninth opening before Christmas, a tenth you walk, an eleventh you carry home, a crate of records to dig through in a courtyard on Vestergade, and three the town keeps to itself. Walkable in a day. Worth a weekend.
Location: inside the footbridge · Photo: Rasmus Hjortshøj / COAST Studio
File: 02-INTERIOR / three inks, out of register
01
Køge Torv
One of Denmark’s largest and best-preserved market squares. Market days Wednesday and Saturday — a habit the town has kept since the Middle Ages.
Location: Torvet · Time: Wed & Sat, morning
02
Kirkestræde 20
Denmark’s oldest dated half-timbered house, 1527. The street around it is why people say “medieval” about Køge and mean it.
Location: Kirkestræde · Mode: Look up
03
Køge Nord Station
A 225-metre footbridge shaped like a tube — timber inside, concrete outside — across the motorway. Opened 2019. The reason this site has a hero image.
Location: Køge Nord · Architects: COBE / Dissing+Weitling / COWI
04
MAPS — formerly KØS
Denmark’s museum for art in public spaces, renamed from KØS to MAPS. Sketches, models and the arguments behind the sculptures you walk past every day.
Location: Nørregade 29 · Time: Tue–Sun 11–17, Thu & Fri to 20 · Phone +45 56 67 60 20
05
Borgring
A Viking-age ring fortress outside Lellinge, found in 2014, on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2023. Harald Bluetooth’s geometry, ten minutes from the square.
Location: Ringstedvej 190, Lellinge · Mode: Walk the circle · Phone +45 70 70 12 36 (Museum Sydøstdanmark)
06
Køge Marina & Søndre Strand
One of Denmark’s largest marinas and a town beach, a short walk from the centre. Summer happens here.
Location: Søndre Havn · Time: May–Sept · Phone +45 56 66 16 89 (harbour office, Mon–Fri 08:00–12:00)
07
Hugo’s Kælder
A vaulted cellar bar just off the square, a wine bar with tapas upstairs. Køge’s living room after dark. More in Food Experiences →
Location: Brogade 19 · Time: Evenings · Phone +45 56 65 58 50
08
Tapperiet
Køge’s live venue down at Søndre Havn. Concerts, club nights, the occasional surprise.
Location: Søndre Badevej 1 · Time: See Culture Calendar · No phone line — mail@tapperiet.nu, tickets via Ticketmaster
Awesome Places 09–11 & 14 · one page each — the toys, the walk, the net, the records
Awesome Place 09 / opening
Fætter BR
Over 1,000 m² of toys, LEGO included, in brand-new premises in Den Hvide By — the old white rubber works reborn as Køge’s shopping quarter. Opens just before Christmas 2026.
Location: Den Hvide By · Opens: before Christmas 2026
Awesome Place 10 / walk
Køge Å
The stream through the town, five minutes from the square: still water, back gardens, a jetty and a dinghy — and a seal, if you are lucky. The walk for the second half of a market morning.
Location: from Køge Bro, Brogade · Time: after the market, Wed & Sat
Awesome Place 11 / take home
The Irma net
The souvenir for every visitor: Irma’s cotton tote, the Irma girl of 1907 on natural or olive canvas. The chain’s shops are gone; the bag lives on in selected Coop shops, and Køge’s is Kvickly on Vestergade, three minutes from the square. Ask at the till.
Location: Kvickly, Vestergade 25A · Time: Mon–Fri 07:00–21:00, Sat–Sun 07:00–20:00 · Phone +45 56 37 14 00
Awesome Place 14 / dig
Candy Records
Crate digging in Køge: Jan Mellin’s record shop in the courtyard at Vestergade 5, under a grapevine, a minute from the square — original pressings since the late 1980s, wine in the window, and a crate on a chair outside at 50 kroner a record, three for 100.
Location: Vestergade 5, in the courtyard · Phone +45 21 49 87 33
Secret spots · 01–03 — the places the town keeps to itself, one page each
Secret spot 01 · Awesome Place 12
Café Åsen
The first secret spot: a café in the old horse stable at Gammel Køgegård, the manor a kilometre west of the square. Coffee, the day’s homemade cake and a glass of wine at a bistro table on the gravel, the 1791 house across the lawn, the rhododendron park behind it. Weekends only.
Location: Gammel Køgegård, the old horse stable · Time: Sat & Sun 10:00–16:00 · Phone +45 93 88 02 32
Secret spot 02 · Awesome Place 13
The rhododendron park
The second secret spot, next door to the first: the park at Gammel Køgegård — one of Denmark’s largest rhododendron collections, in numbered beds, in a park C.Th. Sørensen redrew in 1967, Køge Å running through it. Three afternoons a week; in flower in late spring.
Location: Gammel Køgegård, entrance Gl. Ringstedvej · Time: Wed, Sat & Sun 14:00–18:00 · Phone +45 56 65 01 44
Secret spot 03 · Awesome Place 15
Thyme Planteskole
The third secret spot: a nursery on the edge of town since 1964 — an open yard under polytunnel roofs, glasshouse aisles, espaliered apples, heather and a table of pumpkins in autumn. On 14–15 November it turns into Juledage: a bonfire, æbleskiver and gløgg, a story from the nisse.
Location: Gammel Hastrupvej 1 · Time: Mon–Fri 09:30–17:00, Sat–Sun 09:00–16:00 (from 2 Nov to 15:00) · Phone +45 56 65 00 22
Next: Section 02 / Business Travel
