Understand
Originally heavily forested, a heritage still visible today with its many parks, lakes and forest, the area became a favourite excursion destination for city dwellers during the early days of Denmark's industrialization, where trams and trains would be full of people going to the entertainment areas north of the city on Sundays and other holidays - most of the places have since closed down, but the small but charming Dyrehavsbakken amusement park, the oldest still functioning in the world, and the nearby horse racing tracks and surrounding forest continues to draw hordes of city folk on public holidays and weekends, as will a trip on the hundred year old tour Baadfarten ferries sailing on the lakes and canals near Lyngby, will give you a taste of days gone by - these canals and lakes are actually remains of an elaborate defence for the city, where the canals would draw water of the lakes to flood the low-lying areas to thwart would-be invaders.
The industrialization had another lasting impact on the district, as the earliest factories in the country shot up around the Mølleå River using water power to power the mills producing paper, weapons and textiles. But since steam power was introduced only a short time after these factories were build, development turned to back the city, and the area has been superbly preserved and is still surrounded by green forests, and amazingly most of old mills and factories still stand as they did when they were closed down in 19th century.
In the 1970s the old villages were joined together by huge patches of suburbia, the old village houses turning into residences for the wealthiest, and the suburbia occupied by the upper middle class, and bar a couple of minor exceptions, the area have become notoriously well off. The most interesting areas are without doubt the old Lyngby and along the Ãresund coast, whereas the rest is mainly residential with little interest to travellers.
