Denmark · Region Hovedstaden · Copenhagen
Valby, Copenhagen — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Valby is a south-western district of Copenhagen, the green quarter that holds Københavns Zoo and the Søndermarken park.
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Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors; district boundaries © Københavns Kommune
Where to stay in Valby
Where visitors usually base themselves, and why.
Valby sits on the south-western side of Copenhagen, a settled residential quarter set back from the inner city yet tied to it by frequent S-trains from Valby station. You get parkland, a leafy street grid, and a calmer base than the centre while staying a short ride from it. Beds here lean local.
The Cisternerne galleries beneath Søndermarken and the green slope up to the park give the western edge its character. Stay near Valby station for the quickest run into the heart of Copenhagen.
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About Valby
What are the main landmarks in Valby?
Københavns Zoo is the district's great draw, its animal grounds spreading along the western edge by the park. The Zootårnet rises over it, a timbered lookout visible across this whole side of Copenhagen, climbing far above the cages and the treetops of the gardens below. Below the lawns of Søndermarken, the Cisternerne turns a former reservoir into a damp underground exhibition hall.
Two smaller markers fill in the local fabric: the brick Jesuskirken with its campanile, and the Bakkehusmuseet in a writers' house off the old Roskilde road. Nearby waits the Carlsberg Museum. The green keeps pulling visitors west.
What is the history of Valby?
Valby came to Copenhagen as the city spread south-west. Long a separate village on the Roskilde road, it was chartered into the municipality early in the twentieth century and built up steadily from market gardens and brewery land into a full residential district. Københavns Zoo had already taken root on its western edge by then, drawing the city out toward Søndermarken.
The Jesuskirken rose with the growing parish. The S-train fixed it to the centre.
Where is Valby?
On the south-western side of Copenhagen, in eastern Denmark on the island of Zealand, Valby climbs from a flat residential grid up to the wooded slope of Søndermarken beside Københavns Zoo.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in Valby?
Valby station and Søndermarken edge: a green south-western Copenhagen base by the Cisternerne galleries and the S-train.
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Updated October 2026