Viking heritage
Denmark is home to some fascinating evidence of Viking civilization: the circular fortresses. These perfect circles, protected by earthen ramparts, palisades and ditches, were divided into quadrants by two wide "streets" intersecting at right angles and leading to four gates, each facing a cardinal point. Each quadrant was home to several longhouses. With their silhouette of slightly bulging walls reminiscent of an overturned ship, they impress by their size and their powerful architecture, the whole being supported by interior and exterior wooden pillars. The walls were often protected by a layer of clay, while the roof, most often thatched, could also be covered with small wooden tiles. The interior is usually divided into three spaces: two small rooms at the ends used as bedrooms or storage space, and a large main room along which the central fireplace of the house runs, half buried. Trelleborg, Frykat and Aggersborg are the most famous Viking fortresses in the country.
The site of Lindholm Hoje, it will make you discover the Viking funeral rituals. This vast cemetery shelters nearly 700 tombs delimited by stones laid out according to astonishing geometrical diagrams. The site of Jelling, for its part, makes the transition between pagan funeral rites - as shown by these two peat mounds housing, for the northern one, an oak burial chamber - and Christian worship - as shown by the remains of wooden churches found under the current church. Genius carpenters, the Vikings knew how to develop ingenious techniques such as the mortise and tenon assembly allowing the wooden logs to fit together perfectly for maximum solidity, while the wood itself could be carved for decorative purposes, notably on the gables and portals.
Medieval wealth
From the eleventh and twelfth centuries, stone replaced wood, as shown by the beautiful ashlar church of Tveje Merlose in Holbaek. Romanesque art was characterized by rather massive and compact buildings with flat ceilings and round arches. Later on, stone was replaced by local brick. Saint-Bendts of Ringsted and Our Lady of Kalundborg are the first examples. The second, with its octagonal towers, is not without reminding the Byzantine architecture, just like the cathedral of Ribe, all sandstone and tuff, with its dome at the crossing of the transept. Its southern portal is one of the rare examples of Romanesque sculpture in Denmark.
Not to be missed either in Osterlars, on the island of Bornholm, the astonishing Romanesque and... round churches! The rural churches, especially in Sjaelland, begin the transition to Gothic. They can be recognized by their whitewashed walls, their red tiled roofs, their massive square towers and their stepped curves. The Roskilde cathedral is without doubt the most beautiful example of Danish Gothic. Its red brick silhouette dominated by two towers topped by slender spires and its high cross vaults are all manifestations of this art of height and lightness... just like the superb ribbed vaults and pointed arches of Saint-Knuds cathedral in Odensee.
The Middle Ages also saw the multiplication of civil buildings that were adorned with the colors of the Gothic style. This is the advent of the town halls, witnesses of the urban power. The Odensee town hall, inspired by the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, and the Radhuskirken in Naestve, the oldest civil building in the country, are proud representatives of this. The cities are then organized around a main square, torvet, and a large shopping street, stroget, the rest being mixed in a tangle of narrow cobbled streets... A picturesque atmosphere that cities like Aarhus or Ebeltoft have managed to preserve perfectly.
Renaissance and Baroque
The Danish Renaissance clearly bears the influence of Holland, with its elegantly proportioned red brick buildings featuring scrolled gables, towers topped with domes and spires, and rich sandstone decorations. Kronborg Castle, built by Flemish masters, and Frederiksborg Palace, baptized the Danish Versailles, are the most beautiful representatives. The second is the work of Christian IV, nicknamed the builder king. It is to him that we owe the development of Copenhagen and especially the Christianshavn district, centered around the Kastellet, the city's citadel, of which only the Jarmers Tower remains today. In this new district, as in many cities in the country, half-timbered houses appear, recognizable by their thatched roofs and their long structure.
In Koge, you can admire the oldest half-timbered house in the country, dating from 1527. Don't miss the historic district of Aarhus with its beautiful red and yellow houses. It is also to Christian IV that we owe two of the most astonishing buildings of the capital: the Round Tower, whose ramp turning 7 and a half times around the tower reminds the Tower of Babel, and the Stock Exchange, whose spiral spire dominates the city of its 56 m. A very personal architecture whose forms announce the exuberant baroque and its Italian influences. The Church of Our Saviour in Copenhagen, with its external spiral staircase and its spiral spire, was inspired by the works of Franscesco Borromini, master of the Italian Baroque. Baroque was also the art of staging nature, as shown by the Fredensborg complex, inspired by Italian villas.
Copenhagen was to undergo major transformations under the impetus of the architect Nicolaï Eigtved, whose style combined rococo exuberance and classical harmony. It is to him that we owe the Frederiksstaden district with its wide avenues lined with sumptuous bourgeois residences all converging towards the large square dominated by the Amalienborg Palace, with its elegant classical facades sheltering a rococo ornamental overload. Eigtved is also responsible for the famous Marmorkirken, whose dome is inspired by St. Peter's in Rome.
Neoclassicism and national romanticism
Hard hit by the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, the capital underwent major reconstruction work in the neoclassical style. The great architect of the time was Frederik Christian Hansen, famous for the formal purity of his style, which some described as austere and severe, like his Court of Justice with its imposing stone facade decorated with colonnades. We also owe him the impressive Notre-Dame Cathedral, whose facade flanked by Doric columns supporting a sculpted pediment recalls that of the ancient temples..., as well as the Thorvaldsen Museum inspired by the Parthenon.
Then these classical lines will give way to a historicizing style seeking to redefine the national identity. This is what we call national romanticism. The two great representatives of this style are Martin Nyrop and Vilhelm Dahlerup. To the first, we owe the Copenhagen City Hall, whose brick-red silhouette borrows as much from Nordic Gothic as from Italian Gothic. To the second, we owe the National Art Museum, whose harmonious lines are direct borrowings from the Italian Renaissance, theHotel d'Angleterre and especially the great complex of the Carlsberg Brewery, which mixes antique decor, Florentine inspiration and Gothic power. These historicizing forms also accompanied the first impulses of modernity. The Copenhagen Central Station is an astonishing mix of medieval lines and metal architecture, while the neo-Gothic silhouette of the Palace Hotel reveals sumptuous Art Nouveau elements, notably beautiful ironwork with soft and harmonious curves.
Triumph of modernity
Thechurch in Grundtvig makes a dramatic transition from historicism to modernity. The boldness of its vertical lines and its red brick silhouette are obvious borrowings from the Gothic, but the distortion of its forms is the result of a very modern expressionism. The real modernity will make its appearance with Arne Jacobsen and his Fremtidens Hus which made him win, in 1929, the House of the Future Contest, thanks to gadgets as brilliant as a dust vacuum system under the doormat. Jacobsen will then lay the foundations of Scandinavian organic modernism, combining rationality, functionality, respect for materials and respect for the natural environment. It is to him that we owe the Bellavista building in Klampenborg, the city hall of Aarhus, and the city hall of Rodovre, superb example of a functional use of natural materials in a sober and elegant rendering, tinting the international style with very personal touches.
The other great figure of Danish modernity is Jorn Utzon (creator of the legendary Sydney Opera House!) who knew how to combine regional culture and universal values, as in theBagsvaerd church. Much in demand during the post-war reconstruction, he developed new housing solutions, such as his Utzonian Houses, recognizable by their yellow brick silhouette, their walls extending onto the surrounding land and thus integrating perfectly with it, and their large interior spaces full of fluidity and light. The architect's house in Hellebaek is a manifesto of this. We also owe him housing estates worked as landscape compositions, such as the Kingo Houses housing estate in Helsingor, whose L-shaped houses are directly inspired by traditional Danish farms.
Museums are also vectors of modernity, such as the Museum of Fine Arts in North Jutland, designed by Elissa and Alvar Aalto, all marble and glass, whose interior spaces are divided by movable partitions offering clarity and light.
Contemporary effervescence
Denmark is a top destination for all contemporary architecture enthusiasts. You can discover the achievements of great international architects, such as Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum of Denmark, Zaha Hadid's extension of the Ordrupgaar Museum, and Kengo Kuma's Enchanted House in Odensee, a structure inspired by Andersen's fairy tales, to be inaugurated in 2021. But above all you will discover the incredible vivacity of Danish contemporary creation:
- the Black Diamond in Copenhagen by the Schmidt-Hammer-Lassen agency (a new wing of the Royal Library in the form of a cube made of black marble and smoked glass); the ARos museum in Aarhus, an astonishing red cube with circular interiors; the residential complex called The Wave in Bolgen and the Copenhagen Opera House, whose reinforced concrete structure and façade enhanced by a steel grid made Henning Larsen somewhat controversial! No controversy, however, for Arken, a structure emerging from the dunes imagined by Soren Robert Lund.
And it is to the 3XN agency that we owe the astonishing twisted towers of the Bella Sky Hotel (Scandinavia's largest design hotel) and Blue Planet - Europe's largest aquarium with a silhouette undulating like a wave.
But the great star of Danish architecture is Bjarke Ingels: the transformation of the Orestad district with buildings such as the Big House (an astonishing residential complex in the shape of a figure 8) or The Mountain (awarded the prize for the world's best residential complex in 2008); the Maritime Museum in Helsingor, built in an old dry dock, with futuristic-looking footbridges leading to it. But his craziest project is undoubtedly that of CopenHill or Amagger Bakke. It is a waste incinerator imagined as an artificial mountain. Above the structure, which alternates aluminum bricks and large glass windows, the entirely vegetated roof is transformed into... a ski slope! A way to make sustainable architecture fun. Other sustainable projects include organic houses that convert agricultural waste into building materials... And who knows, maybe some architects will be inspired by the amazing seaweed-roofed houses on Laeso Island to imagine the sustainable house of tomorrow? In July 2023, Copenhagen will host the UIA-UNESCO World Congress as the World Capital of Architecture!
Getaway to the Faroes
The Faroe Islands are famous for their traditional houses with grass roofs. Inspired by the techniques developed by the Vikings, these houses of dry stone or wood are covered with a roof made of squares of grass and peat placed on birch bark, the whole ensuring a perfect insulation. The houses in Tjornuvik are good examples, as is the medieval farmhouse on the island of Koltur. The city center of Toshavn, it, preserves the charm of the small medieval cities with its narrow lanes and its wooden houses. On the promontory of Tinganes, the red wooden houses housing the governmental authorities almost make the place look like a doll's village. Do not miss the village of Kirkjubur. Famous for housing one of the oldest wooden houses in Europe (a black wooden farmhouse with red framed windows), the village also has a pretty little 11th century church with whitewashed walls and an overturned ship's hull roof, a tradition found in many fishing villages, also populated with small low houses (to avoid being caught in the wind) and dressed in bright colors.
But the archipelago is also home to some beautiful contemporary creations, such as the Nordic House by Norwegian Ola Steen, which combines modern design with a green roof, or Glasir-Torshavn College, a real architectural whirlwind by several architects including...Bjarke Ingels! And let's not forget the engineering feats carried out to link the islands together. The latest one: the Eysturoyartunnilin linking Streymay and Eysturoy and having probably the only underwater traffic circle in the world. A stone medusa illuminated in blue, this traffic circle is the work of the artist Trondur Patursson... a Faroese of course!
