Day 3 in Copenhagen

We caught train from just around the corner from where we stayed at Enghave Station and went to see the Round Tower and the Trinity Church. The foundation stone was laid in 1637 and the Round Tower was completed in 1642 with the church being consecrated in 1656. During a fire in 1728 some damage was done to the building but not as much as others close by. Restorations were completed in 1731 in a Gothic-Baroque style.

The Round Tower was a long winding ramp then stairs to the top (35m tall) where we had some great views of Copenhagen. It was built as an astronomical observatory for stargazing and used by astronomers in the late 1760s to draw a more accurate map of the kingdom. The tower is Denmark’s zero point. The Trinity Church was beautiful with lots of white and gold adornments. From there we headed down to Rosenborg Castle and walked around the beautiful grounds where many locals were sunbathing. The history of the Castle goes back to 1606-1607, when the King (Christian IV) in a newly laid out park - The King's Garden, had a summerhouse built. Rosenborg was used as a Royal residence until around 1710, when Christian IV's great grandson, Frederik IV, gave it up in favour of other, more up-to-date, summer residences. Rosenborg Castle instead became the setting for the Royal collections. We spent about 2 hours there looking at the collections, the tapestries in particular were amazing, early forms of propaganda of course showing the brave King riding/sailing off into danger and saving Denmark from the Swedish invaders. The castle also houses the Treasury which is why there were armed guards on duty!

The Marble Church also called Frederik’s Church Frederick's Church has the largest church dome in Scandinavia with a span of 31m. The dome rests on 12 columns. The foundation stone was set by king Frederick V on October 31, 1749, but the construction was slowed by budget cuts and the death of the architect in 1754. In 1770, the original plans for the church were abandoned. The church was left incomplete and, in spite of several initiatives to complete it, stood as a ruin for nearly 150 years. The church was finally opened to the public on August 19, 1894. Due to financial restrictions, the original plans for the church to be built almost entirely from marble were discarded, and instead construction was to be done with limestone. It is an amazing church and photos do not come anywhere close to representing how incredible the building is, totally blown away,

We took the train over to Christiania a small island suburb, very hippie and quite run down in comparison to the rest of Copenhagen but it did have an interesting Baroque Church with a corkscrew spire, unfortunately we were a bit late to get in.