Church of Our Saviour (Vor Frelsers Kirke)

Look up at that black and gold spire. Can you see the staircase coiling around the outside, ever narrower, almost touching the sky? It is one of Copenhagen’s most famous sights, and also the star of its most often repeated architectural legend.

1The church and its tower

The church was designed by Lambert van Haven. The foundation stone was laid in 1682 and it was consecrated in 1696, but the tower stayed unfinished for half a century. Between 1749 and 1752 the architect Lauritz de Thurah gave it its spire, inspired by the lantern of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, Borromini’s church in Rome.

Some 150 outside steps wind four times around the spire up to the globe. At the summit stands a figure of Christ with a banner, deliberately out of proportion so that it could be seen from afar.

2The legend of the architect

Tradition says that when the work was finished, Thurah discovered that the spiral turned the wrong way and, in despair, threw himself from the top.

It is not true. Thurah died of illness in 1759, seven years after completing the spire. And the spiral turns the same way as the one at Sant’Ivo, his acknowledged model. The story is sometimes retold with other names, but it has never had any documentary basis.

If you go inside, look for the organ: it rests on two elephants, a nod to the Order of the Elephant, Denmark’s highest honour.

3What to look out for

• The external staircase, gilded and growing ever narrower.
• The figure at the summit, standing on the globe.
• The direction of the spiral: check it for yourself.