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An award-winning feat of almost filmic architecture, the Øresund Bridge connects Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, to Sweden’s city of Malmö, in a sweep of strait-crossing steel frames that slowly descend into the blue waves, as if into an underground lair, or a blue oblivion.
Opening up a whole world of Scandi travel adventures, the Øresund Bridge is the longest joint car and train bridge in Europe, and means you can ‘pop’ from Copenhagen to Sweden, over the borderless waves, in just a 35-minute drive.
Designed by architect Georg K.S. Rotne, the Øresund Bridge was finished on the turn of the millennium and was completed three weeks ahead of schedule, regardless of the 16 unexploded WWII bombs found in the surrounding water (all safely taken care of, of course). Stellar Scandi engineering, for you.
It was Georg K.S. Rotne’s ingenious mind for architecture and design that led to sight of the ‘disappearing’ bridge as it is today. Being so close to Copenhagen airport there was the fear that too high a suspension bridge – necessary to carry both train and car – would interrupt smooth air traffic flow. So Rotne had a plan.
Constructing a manmade island in the middle of the Øresund Strait, Peberholm (now a site of extensive flora and fauna and scientific interest) was the moment when architecture took a well-planned nosedive and submerged itself below the freezing blue – avoiding air collisions – and creating a spectacle of design.
Turning a straight 16km journey between two countries into an easy, autonomous crossing, we recommend hiring yourself a little car, hitting the road, and going on a wild Scandi adventure. Wind your way 40-minutes from Denmark’s Copenhagen across the water into Sweden’s Malmö, and journey the length of this design-led Swedish isle. Taking the east coast to quietly buzzing Gothenburg or heading all the way north west to capital Stockholm.
This is a travel and architecture journey for the books, over one of the most beautifully conceived bridges in the world.