NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL
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Cathedral featuring marble sculptures of the apostles and an obelisk decorated with bronze bas-reliefs.
Notre-Dame Cathedral is the most important church in the diocese. The current building is the successor to the first church built by Absalon in the 12th century. It was destroyed by fire on the night of September 4-5, 1807, when the city was bombarded by the Royal Navy. Its reconstruction in 1829 was entrusted to architect C. F. Hansen, who was also responsible for many other projects. The entrance is marked by a podium from which rises the neoclassical façade with its six Doric columns, evocative of ancient temples.
The contrast between the massiveness of the uniformly red exterior and the immaculate whiteness of the interior is striking. The 60-metre-long, 25-metre-high nave is covered by a coffered barrel vault. All the marble sculptures (including those on the façade) representing the apostles were created in Rome by the renowned Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. The Copenhagen Boys Choir, a choir made up of the 6th and 7th grade boys from the Sankt Annæ Gymnasium, also performs here.
On the square stands an obelisk decorated with bronze bas-reliefs by Max Andersen. This is the monument to the Reformation, commissioned in 1936 to celebrate the fourth centenary of Christian III's choice of the Lutheran Church as the national church. It features pious scenes of preaching, Reformation struggles (soldiers manu militari driving out Catholic monks) and the sovereign announcing his decision to a jubilant crowd on Gammeltorv.
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