Before you stands Copenhagen Cathedral, the Vor Frue Kirke. Its Greek-temple look is deceptive: a church has stood on this very spot since Absalon’s day, at the end of the 12th century. What you see is the latest of several rebuildings.

1Destroyed twice

The medieval Gothic church vanished in the great fire of 1728. It was rebuilt, and in September 1807 it burned again during the British bombardment of Copenhagen, when Britain attacked the city to seize the Danish fleet. The tall tower, visible from afar, took the full force of the attack.

The city commissioned the new cathedral from C. F. Hansen, the great Danish Neoclassical architect, who completed it in 1829. Severe on the outside and luminous within, it is a manifesto of its age: order, reason and clarity.

2Thorvaldsen’s apostles

Inside, the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen placed a marble Christ with outstretched arms, with the twelve apostles lining the nave. His Christ became one of the most widely copied religious images of the 19th century.

Kings such as Christian IV were crowned here, in 1596, and the present King Frederik and Queen Mary were married here in 2004.

The cathedral stands right next to the University, which grew out of a school attached to this church and received its charter in 1479. In the tower hangs the Stormklokken, the largest bell in Denmark.

3What to look out for

  • The columned portico and the sculpted pediment above the entrance.
  • The statues of Moses and David on either side of the façade.
  • The square tower, far plainer than the Gothic one the city lost.

Documented

The medieval church burned in 1728, its successor in the British bombardment of 1807, and the present building by C. F. Hansen was completed in 1829.

Sources and credits

Københavns Domkirke, history of the cathedral (domkirken.dk); Den Store Danske (lex.dk), ‘Vor Frue Kirke’; Thorvaldsens Museum, entry on the Christus.

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