Copenhagen metropolitan area Copenhagen metropolitan area The Copenhagen metropolitan area or Metropolitan Copenhagen (, literally "The Capital Area") is a large commuter belt (the area in which it is practical to commute to work) surrounding Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It includes Copenhagen Municipality, Frederiksberg and surrounding municipalities stretching westward across Zealand. It has densely-populated core surrounded by suburban settlements. According to OECD, the Copenhagen Metropolitan Region had close to 2.4 million inhabitants in 2005, which is the largest metropolitan area of any Scandinavian city. The metropolitan area has several current definitions and also some historical, now defunct, definitions. The most widely accepted
History of Copenhagen a fairly wide area. In the 12th century Copenhagen assumed increasing importance and the town was reinforced with earthworks. The Roman Catholic Church erected cathedrals in Roskilde and in Lund (in what is now Sweden), which laid the basis for further development in those regional centres. As Copenhagen was midway between the two cities, it was centrally located for traffic and trading. The earliest written mention of the town dates back to the 12th century, when Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum refers to it as "Portus Mercatorum", which translates into Merchants' Harbour or in the Danish of the time "Købmannahavn".