Copenhagen revisited
In Copenhagen
The cruise liner Costa Favolosa moored by the Ocean Quay in Copenhagen and at around 8.40am Irma and I left on a shuttlebus for the centre of the city. It was around 9.00am that we started touring Hans Christian Anderson’s wonderful city.
I had been to Copenhagen with a friend in the summer of 1965, and, together with Irma and our younger son, Kristoff, some forty years ago. But my memory fails me about where I had been or what I had seen, except for the ‘Little Mermaid’.
The city centre
The first interesting place we came by was St Nicholas’ church – now turned into the ‘Nikolaj Contemporary Art Centre’ – one of the most conspicuous landmarks in the city; its fanciful NeoBaroque spire is 90m high and its top rules over the buildings around. It was closed.
Then we walked into the square where several people put up small stalls in a sort of a flea market. One had an old gramophone for sale; it was functioning and a long play record was being played on it.
A bronze equestrian monument to King Christian V dominates the centre of the Kungens Nytorv – ‘The King’s New Square’ – surrounded by an array of colourful flower beds.
The weather was fine, and the sun in a cloudless blue sky was building a temperature of over 25o C.
The Nyhavn Canal
We joined the many tourists and walked along the scenic Nyhavn Canal, full of small and large boats and yachts, among them ships with sails. The old buildings on both sides have facades painted with different pastel colours and create an impressive picturesque scene. Most of those on our side – on the left – have all been turned into restaurants which have occupied half the embankment with large umbrellas and tables and chairs for clients to enjoy rest and cherish their tasty dishes, included fish and seashells.
Along the embankment
At the end of the embankment we turned on our left, passed the Royal Danish Playhouse – a centre for dramatic art designed for top-level theatre productions, strolled on to the imposing Admiral Hotel, and the Amalienborg Palace – the home of the Danish Royal family. An enclosed garden, with a modern ‘waterfall’ fountain and an another large fountain spouting a high jet of brilliant white water, and beds of flowering plants and large bushy trees provided a cool space for walking.
David and Queen Mary
At one corner, next to the red brick building of The National Gallery of Denmark, stands a large bright green bronze replica of Michaelangelo’s 1503 original in Florence, ‘David’.
In another corner a few meters away, we were greeted by the huge black shining bronze monument of Queen Mary – ‘a hybrid of bodies, Nations, and Narratives’ by La Vughn Belle and Jeanette Ehlers, erected in 2018 to commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of the sale and transfer of the Virgin Islands from Denmark to the United States. [The statue with the sitting queen seems to have been inspired by an 1888 woodcut depicting Queen Mary holding a cane bill and a torch.]
The Geifion Fountain
However, further on, the fountain which attracted many people was the Gefion Fountain, with a bronze tenacious female – the Norse mythology goddess Gefjon – driving four large and fat dark bronze raging bulls, ‘ploughing’ the largest Danish island of Zealand which today has a population of over two million. It is located in Nordre Talbod area next to the Kastellet – a modestly small Citadel.
Churchil’s Park
Nearby stands St Alban’s Anglican Church which caters for ‘a growing, diverse, and inclusive Christian community’.
This English church – as it is more popularly called – was designed in Gothic Revival style, and built between 1885 and 1887, next to what is today called Churchill’s Park [named as such in 1965, to commemorate Winston Churchill and the British assistance in the liberation of Denmark during World War II]; a huge portrait bust bronze monument of the British statesman stands as a memorial in the peaceful park.
The little mermaid
All these attractions are found in the vicinity of the popular most visited Edvard Eriksen’s bronze statue of ‘Den lille havfrue’ – the ‘Little Mermaid’. Although it had been stolen, decapitated, blasted off, painted over and over again, mutilated, and vandalized and repaired many times, it still sits gracefully on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade, recalling Andersen’s fairy tale of a mermaid in love, becoming human. [Among my translated publications, I had worked on a version of this fairy tale and included it among ten of Andersen’s stories in Maltese, in a book Sirinella u Stejjer Oħra, Malta, 1991.] The statue was unveiled in August 1913.
Monuments
Walking in the garden nearby one encounters monuments to King of Denmark Frederik IX, Princess of Denmark Marie, and the Admiral Huitfeldt Column put up in 1886 to commemorate the death of the admiral and his 497 crew members when their ship-of-the-line ‘Dannebrog’ was blown up on 4 October 1710, during one of the wars with the Swedes.
Then we walked on to Bredgade high street.
Besides many law firms, trade unions, fashion stores, and art galleries, a modern design and the medical museums, there are at least three churches along this mile long wide street [that is the meaning of ‘bredgade’].
A Catholic Cathedral
We first visited Christ the Redeemer cathedral, dedicated to Saint Ansgar – the Apostle of the north – and is the main Catholic church in this predominantly Protestant country. It was built in neoclassical style in 1840. Across the facade – built with stern red bricks – is an inscription: ‘Christo Redemptori Sacrum’ beneath which in recessed niches, are found five beautiful large sized white marble statues – among them one of Moses with the Commandments Tablets and King David with his lyre. At street level, on the right hand side of the main door, stands a light green bronze rigid figure of St Ansgarius.
Inside the church is amazing; colourful stained glass windows provide enough daylight. The walls are decorated with paintings and sculptures. A bust of Pope Lucius I reminds the visitor that his skull is kept in a reliquary within the cathedral. The fresco in bright colours and gold on the apse represents the Holy Trinity, the apostles, and Mother Mary surrounded by saints, including Saint Ansgar.
Alexander Nevsky church
The Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Russian patron saint Alexander Nevsky, built by the Russian Government between 1881 and 1883, has a beautiful façade executed in red and grey bricks with sandstone ornamentations. Above the gable, facing the street, dominate three onion domes covered with shining gold. High on the facade, in a niche above the bells [in three arches], there is an icon of Alexander Nevsky. Unfortunately, at the moment, it was closed and we could not enjoy seeing the interior.
The marble church
Further down the busy street, on the same side of this church, in a recessed small square, lies the Evangelical Lutheran Frederik’s church, popularly known as the ‘Marble church’. Presided by King Frederik V, its foundation stone was laid in 1749. However, deaths of people involved and high costs hindered the smooth construction and it was only on 19 August 1894 that the church was ready and consecrated.
It is most probably called the ‘Marble church’ because it is mainly built of Norwegian marble.
The church is a ‘rotunda’ and has the largest church dome in northern Europe; with its span of 31m and a height of approximately 46m [resting on 12 columns] it rises high above the rooftops of Copenhagen. It was inspired by the dome of St Peter’s in Rome.
The frescos inside represent the Apostles. It has two baptismal fonts and two organs. Of particular attraction are the wood carving depicting the Deposition, a German ivory cross, and the commemorative relief of c.F. Tietgen and his wife.
Around the church, at street level, stand 14 bronze statues of prominent Danish Church Fathers – among them priest and author N.F.S. Grundtvig, philosopher and theologian Søren A. Kierkegaard, and poet and novelist B.S. Ingemann. There are other statues on the roof terrace of the church; they represent important church historical figures which include Moses and Luther.
The Royal Danish Theatre
Further down the road, we passed by the equestrian monument to Christian X, by Einar Utzon-Frank, put up in 1954, and ended up in front of the Royal Danish Theatre which is the national Danish performing arts institution founded in 1748. It first served as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the country. Opera, the Royal Danish Ballet, classical music concerts, and drama are presented in it.
In front of the building, on two large square pedestals, stand two bronze monuments – one on each side of the main entrance; one of them is of Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger (1779–1850), who was a Danish poet and playwright, and introduced romanticism in Danish literature. [His plays are preserved in in the Royal Library.] The other is of Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754) who was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian, and playwright, born in Bergen, Norway, but spent most of his adult life in Denmark.
The architecture of the frontage of the theatre is very interesting. In the ground floor it has three entrance/exit doors, while in the second floor it has a recessed loggia with three arches resting on six Ionic columns, and a colourfully painted ceiling which may be appreciated even by the man in the street.
We did not have more than six hours to ‘roam’ in the city; this is one of the limits of sightseeing during a cruise. We would have liked to see more of Copenhagen. Naturally, that is for another visit with more days at our disposal and, possibly, in cooler weather.