Søndermarken is a public park in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, best known for its broad tree cover, historic landscape design, and the underground cisterns that now house Cisternerne, a museum for contemporary art. It sits on the edge of Valby and the Carlsberg district, separated from Frederiksberg Park only by Roskildevej, and the two parks share much of the same royal history.

Type	Public park
Location	Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark
Adjacent places	Frederiksberg Park, Valby, Carlsberg district
Notable feature	Cisternerne, a museum in former water cisterns
Historical origin	Royal landscape associated with the Frederiksberg palace grounds

What kind of place is Søndermarken?

Søndermarken is not a formal civic square or a small neighborhood garden. It is a large, older park shaped by the same royal landscape tradition that formed Frederiksberg Park next door. Its layout is quieter and more enclosed than the open, scenic park across Roskildevej, with mature trees, rolling ground, and paths that feel separated from the city around them.

The park matters because it shows how Copenhagen reused aristocratic and municipal land as public green space. It preserves a layered landscape: part park, part historical ground, part infrastructure site. That combination gives it a character different from a decorative city park that exists only for leisure.

How did it come into being?

Søndermarken grew out of the lands tied to Frederiksberg Palace and its grounds. For a long period, the area functioned as managed royal terrain rather than an everyday public park. Like many European city parks, it changed meaning as the city expanded around it and access broadened from courtly use to public use.

The park’s relationship to Frederiksberg Park is central to understanding it. The two areas once belonged to a connected landscape system, and Roskildevej now acts as a hard boundary between them. That split left Søndermarken with its own identity while preserving the sense that both places were designed from the same historical ground plan.

Why does Cisternerne matter here?

Cisternerne occupies former water cisterns beneath the park, turning a piece of buried infrastructure into an exhibition space. The site is significant because it adds an underground layer to an already stratified landscape. Instead of treating the park as only surface space, Cisternerne reveals the hidden engineering and water systems that once supported Copenhagen.

For visual culture, the setting is as important as the exhibitions. The dark, damp chambers produce reflections, echo, condensation, and low light, which strongly shape installation art and glass-based work. A museum placed under a park changes how art is encountered: architecture, climate, and material presence become part of the work’s meaning.

What does Søndermarken look like in practice?

On the ground, Søndermarken reads as a wooded park with long views interrupted by slopes, thick planting, and older tree cover. It is used for walking, resting, and moving between parts of the Frederiksberg district, but it does not feel like an over-programmed urban plaza. The landscape invites slower use and rewards attention to season, shadow, and terrain.

Its most distinctive practical feature is the coexistence of everyday park life and the Cisternerne entrance. A visitor can move from daylight into an underground exhibition in minutes. That shift from open landscape to enclosed chamber is unusual and helps explain why the park appears so often in discussions of installations that respond to site, moisture, and atmosphere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Søndermarken the same as Frederiksberg Park?

No. The two parks are separate, though they share a common history and were once part of a connected royal landscape. Roskildevej now divides them. Frederiksberg Park is more open and formal, while Søndermarken feels denser and more enclosed.

What is Cisternerne?

Cisternerne is an underground exhibition space inside former water cisterns beneath Søndermarken. It is used for contemporary art, including installations that respond to the site’s darkness, humidity, and acoustics. The place is especially relevant to glass art because light and reflection behave differently underground.

Why is the park important to artists and designers?

The park matters because it offers a strong contrast between cultivated surface landscape and hidden infrastructure below. That makes it useful for site-specific work, especially projects that depend on atmosphere, movement, and material effects. The setting can change the way art looks and sounds in a direct, physical way.