The Lur Blowers (Lurblæserne)

Look up. At the top of that brick column, two bronze men are blowing extraordinarily long, curved instruments. These are lurs, bronze horns from the Nordic Bronze Age, almost three thousand years old. They have been found in Danish bogs, often in pairs, and are among the treasures of the National Museum.

1A gift from brewers

The monument went up between 1911 and 1914. The figures are by the sculptor Siegfried Wagner and the column by the architect Anton Rosen. The Carlsberg foundations paid for it as a gift to the city, to mark the centenary of the birth of J. C. Jacobsen, the brewery’s founder, born in 1811. Look for the inscription on the base.

Copenhageners, ever ironic, were not overawed by the solemnity: because the two figures are squeezed so tightly together, they nicknamed them ‘the stacked flour sacks’.

2The legend

Tradition has it that the lur blowers sound their horns whenever a maiden walks past beneath them.

Since no one has ever heard them, the joke tells itself. It is a popular quip with no basis beyond local humour, yet many of the city’s guides have been repeating it for generations.

There is another curious detail: real lurs were played in pairs, and some archaeologists believe they had a ceremonial role. Wagner honoured that idea by placing two musicians side by side.

3What to look out for

• The two musicians, so close together that from afar they look like one.
• The shape of the lurs, curved like an animal’s horn.
• The dedication to Jacobsen at the foot of the column.