Copenhagen Home of the Little Mermaid
By: Amber Atherton
Love is impulsive. In the end, the unhappy mermaid looks on speechless as her prince gives her up in favour of a princess. In Andersen’s fairy tale, the little mermaid throws herself into the sea, dissolving in the waves. Today, the bronze mermaid created by Eric Eriksen sits on a rock on the harbour.
Vandals have attacked the statue on several occasions, but luckily, city officials keep the original bronze moulds in a secure location. Identical replacement limbs are always available.
When Denmark became a kingdom in the 10th century, what would later become the great city of Copenhagen was a small, insignificant fishing hamlet named Havn. Located at the entrance to the Baltic Sea, its central location attracted the attention of the Danish royalty. Recent archeological discoveries show that by the 11th century, Copenhagen had already grown into a small town with a large estate, a church, a market, at least two wells and many smaller suburbs spread over a fairly wide area
Havn was transformed virtually overnight into an important trading centre. The building of Slotsholm Fortress in 1167 is usually said to mark the city’s founding. Three years later, Copenhagen was given its current name, which in Danish means “merchant’s harbour”. In 1443, the emergent city became the official capital of the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. When the union disbanded in 1523 it became capital of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Amalienborg, the famous winter palace of the Danish royal family, stands on a broad, paved, octagonal plaza. Four nearly identical palaces were built along the four diagonal sides of the octagon. At the centre of this beautiful rococo complex, one of the loveliest in Europe, is an equestrian monument honouring King Frederik V. A changing of the guard takes place outside the palaces each midday.
The best view of the Old City of Copenhagen may be from the wide platform on top of the Round Tower. Although the tower is only 36 metres high, the spiral staircase to the top winds around 209 metres. It was once possible to ride to the top on horseback, as Peter the Great did when he visited.
Unfortunately, horses are now banned from the tower. Trinity Church is adjacent to the tower, with the shopping districts of Stroget and Straedet nearby. Most of the Old City is off limits to motor vehicles, making it one of Europe’s biggest pedestrian zones. Christiansborg Palace is on the small island of Slotsholm, the site of the original fortress, which is today joined to the rest of the city by several bridges.
The palace was once home to the Danish royal family, and is now the seat of the Danish government and its parliament, the Folketing. This is the sixth building to stand here since the 1167 founding of the city. Invading armies, fires and modernization have all taken their toll. While the first castle on the site stood from 1417 into the late eighteenth century, rebuilding and renovation has been fast and industrious ever since.
The present Christiansborg was built in the early twentieth century. Accessible from every quarter of the city, Tivoli Gardens amusement park first opened on 15 August 1843. Visitors can take a trip in a small boat on the moats once used for Copenhagen’s defense or take a pleasant ride on the big wheel looking down at the city from on high. It has a new, zero-G roller coaster (“the Demon”) and twenty-five other rides, as well as many restaurants and concert venues.
The mime presentations in the Pantomimes are extremely popular. After 150 years of continuous operation, neon signs are still banned in Tivoli. Instead, more than 110,000 incandescent lanterns brilliantly illuminate one of Europe’s oldest surviving pleasure gardens. The white bulbs hung from trees contribute to Tivoli’s uniquely old-fashioned atmosphere, even as the roller Demon hurtles by.
Amber Atherton
There once was a girl named AMBER who loved jewellery. She loved it so much that she traveled around the world from the deepest depths of Indonesia to the super cools malls of Tokyo to source stylish and most importantly individual trinkets that weren’t mass produced. And when her friends saw her jewellery they would ask eagerly ‘where did you get that?’ and Amber would smile as she knew her reply wasn’t going to be TopShop or Accessorize but ‘I bought it outside a temple in India’ or that ‘It’s from a little boutique in Hong Kong’. For Costume Jewellery and unique stylish accessories go to http://www.myflashtrash.com Visit The Costume Jewelery Come back.
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Tags: copenhagen, denmark, mermaid, travel