The Marble Church (Marmorkirken)

Before you rises Frederiks Kirke, known to everyone as Marmorkirken, the Marble Church. Its great green dome closes the view from Amalienborg and is the largest church dome in Scandinavia: about 31 metres across, resting on twelve columns.

1A never-ending project

King Frederik V laid the foundation stone on 31 October 1749. Nicolai Eigtved’s design called for a spectacular church built entirely of Norwegian marble. But the money ran out, Eigtved died in 1754, and his successor, the Frenchman Nicolas-Henri Jardin, could not finish it either. In 1770 work came to a halt.

For almost a century and a half the church was a ruin in the middle of the royal district: half-built walls with grass growing on them.

In 1874 the banker Carl Frederik Tietgen bought the ruins and paid for the church to be completed in exchange for the right to build on the surrounding plots.

The sale caused a scandal, and the minister who signed it, Andreas Frederik Krieger, was charged with corruption, though he was eventually acquitted. The architect Ferdinand Meldahl adapted the design and, for lack of funds, used limestone for much of the building. The church finally opened on 19 August 1894.

2What to look out for

• The dome and its gilded lantern.
• The two kinds of stone: 18th-century marble lower down, limestone higher up.
• The statues of theologians and churchmen all around, Kierkegaard among them.