Vor Frelsers Kirke

Vor Frelsers Kirke is a Baroque church in Copenhagen’s Christianshavn district, built from red brick on granite foundations. Its Greek-cross plan has chapels in the corners and rafters rising thirty-six metres. Lambert van Haven designed the church in a Palladian Netherlandish style, uncommon in Denmark during the late seventeenth century.

Construction began in the 1680s on land reclaimed from the sea, with boulders reaching Copenhagen’s limestone bed. The church was consecrated in April 1696. Nicodemus Tessin designed the marble altar, installed in 1732 with Jesus praying in Gethsemane. The Botzen brothers built its three-storey organ between 1696 and 1698. A restoration in 1965 returned the instrument to services and concerts. A carillon installed between 1928 and 1933 now contains forty-eight bells.

Lauritz de Thurah added the oak spire about fifty years later, creating a ninety-metre landmark topped by a gilded figure of Christ. Four hundred steps lead to its summit. The final 150 steps wind around the outside behind gilded iron grating, ending below a two-and-a-half-metre globe. The globe above the staircase can hold twelve adults.