Behind the City Hall of Copenhagen you can find another red-brick building that reusables to a fortress. This is the Central Fire Station in Copenhagen (Københavns Hovedbrandstation).
The building was built in 1889 in historicist style after the plans of the architect Fenger. Fenger was also appointed as the City Architect in Copenhagen in the second half of the 19th century. The historicist style makes the building to resemble to a medievel Italian castle. After 3 years of contraction the new fire station was inaugurated on the 30th April in 1892. Emblematic part of the building is the tower. Today the building hosts the alarm central for the Greater Copenhagen area; furthermore it is responsible for the emergency services in some central parts of the capital city.
The Marble Church (Marmorkirken or Frederiks Kirke) is easy to be spotted because of its outstanding green copper dome. It lies near the Amalienborg castle, which is the official residence of the Danish queen and her family. Nowadays the church is serving as a popular wedding site and touristic attraction, and belongs to the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Entrance fee: DKK 35 (Adults), DKK 20 (Students and youth under 18)
Marble?
Most of the church is constructed of Norwegian marble, however, the upper parts are built from different materials (For example Danish faxe marble). This is because the original plan turned out to be too expensive to carry out, hence they had to cut the amount of costly Norwegian marble.
Architecture
According to the original plans the Marble church was erected to honour the anniversary of the Danish royal family's (the Oldenburg dynasty) 300 years reign. Initially Nicolai Eigtved made the plans (see on the upper picture) in 1740 in rococo style. Nine years after King Frederik himself laid the foundation stone. When Eigtved died in 1754 the plans for the church were modified by Nicolas Henri Jardin, a French architect. The constructions was stopped because of budgetary reasons, and only finished in 1894.
The dome has a majestic 46 metres high. There are 12 pillars that carry the dome. The diameter of the dome is 31 metres, which makes this dome one of the largest domes in Europe, and the larges church in Denmark.
Interesting
The construction was stopped for years because of lack of funding. Finally, it was a rich financier C.F. Tietgen (founder of the Tuborg brewery) who donated money to complete the construction.
The church which is famous for being the venue where the Queen of Denmark had her wedding ceremony and for being the burial site for many famous Danish heroes.
Holmen was a little island close to the centre of Copenhagen in the medieval times. Later in the 16th century constructions works started and the island was turned into a peninsula surrounded by the Holmens Canal. In the 19th century this canal was filled up, and the new street preserved the name Holmens Kanal.
The Church of Holmen (Holmens Kirke) lies near the street called Holmens Kanal, in the centre of Copenhagen. It was built in the 16th century to forge anchors for vessels. However, later in the 17th century king Christian IV converted the building to a naval church belonging to the Danish lutheran denomination. The first church looked not much different from the forge in 1619. However, later on in 1641 the building was rebuilt in a cruciform church.
Interesting
Even though the great fire and the siege of Copenhagen by the English did not damage the church significantly, the Swedish assault in 1658 left a mark on the building: a cannonball is still visible in the plinth of the northern side of the choir.
