Denmark's first house of literature holds its readings under a former church roof. LiteraturHaus opened on 14 April 2005 in the deconsecrated Methodist church Bethania at Mollegade 7 on Norrebro - an 1892 building by architects Henrik Hagemann and Knud Arne Petersen - on the initiative of theatre publisher Paul Opstrup, who bought the ex-church with his own money and gathered a think tank of publishers, writers and critics around the idea. The model borrows deliberately from the German-speaking world, where established Literaturhauser have anchored literary life for decades: a permanent live venue where literature is performed, debated and tested rather than just sold. The programme runs author readings by Danish and international names, critic salons, poetry festivals and debate evenings, alongside concerts, film and art that cross-fertilise with the written word - the old nave lends itself to everything from chamber jazz to performance. During the Copenhagen Jazz Festival the house regularly packs a dozen concerts into ten days, and the attic exhibition space ArtRaum shows work of deliberately mixed origins under the church rafters. Two decades in, the house has become exactly the gathering point its founders described: writers, students, critics and readers share the room, and the location on Mollegade - beside the old Jewish cemetery, two minutes from Assistens Cemetery and the Norrebro cafe streets - keeps it woven into the neighbourhood's everyday life. The bar opens with the evening's events, and the hall hires out for literary and cultural arrangements. Opstrup's founding argument still defines the house: literature should not be judged by sales figures alone, and a city needs a room where the written word can be taken by the collar and asked what it is good for. The volunteer-driven economy keeps the doors open and the programme unruly - which is precisely the point.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: Mollegade 7, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2200

Telephone: +45 28 44 01 04

Website: http://literaturhaus.dk

Opening Date: 14/04/2005