As long as Copenhagen’s existence, fish has played a significant role in the harbours. Not so much anymore as the last Fisherman’s Wife selling fish at “Gammel Strand” in central Copenhagen retired in 2008. I vaguely remember them selling fish from trips to Copenhagen in my early childhood. A historical archive in Copenhagen has a collection of photos from the marketplace.

In my last post about a Copenhagen City Museum nearby one of the canals, G.P. Cox, with his blog Pacific Paratrooper mentioned that he liked the statue of the Fisherman’s Wife.

While they built the Metro station, the statue spent eight long years at a humble place in Southern Copenhagen. The artist is Vilhelm Thorvald Charles Svejstrup Madsen, and she was placed at the harbour in November 1940

Until about 1900, the women walked early in the morning many miles.

They started north of Copenhagen with their load of fish in a basket on their back. After that time, they organised transportation together by horse and carriage. It is hard to imagine the hard life they had to endure.

The girl in the picture is my good friend who went with her mother to buy fish at the marketplace at Gammel Strand/ The Old Beach