Church of Our Lady & Frue Plads

This church looks bare and severe compared to most of the city, and the reason is brutal. In early September 1807 a British fleet lay off Copenhagen. Denmark was neutral but had a navy, and the British would not risk Napoleon getting the use of it. When the city refused to hand it over, the bombardment began. It went on for three nights. The British fired around three hundred Congreve rockets into the houses, among the first incendiary rockets used against a city, and more than a thousand buildings burned. Close to two hundred civilians were killed. The cathedral standing here then had the tallest spire in town. British gunners used it as a ranging mark to sight their guns, and set it alight in the process. The tower came down and the church burned to the ground. The one you see now was designed by C.F. Hansen and finished in 1829. He chose a severe neoclassical style with almost no ornament. If you go inside, Bertel Thorvaldsen's figure of Christ stands above the altar. Look at the arms. They are not raised in blessing as you would expect, but lowered and open. You have to walk right up and look up underneath them to meet the face. That was shaped on purpose. You have to come closer. The square around you belongs to the university, founded in 1479.