Rådhuspladsen

Rådhuspladsen Review

City Hall Square is dominated by the 1905 mock-Renaissance Rådhus (City Hall). Architect Martin Nyrop's creation was popular from the start, perhaps because he envisioned that it should give "gaiety to everyday life and spontaneous pleasure to all..." A statue of Copenhagen's 12th-century founder, Bishop Absalon, sits atop the main entrance.

Besides being an important ceremonial meeting place for Danish VIPs, the intricately decorated Rådhus contains the first World Clock. The multidial, superaccurate astronomical timepiece has a 570,000-year calendar and took inventor Jens Olsen 27 years to complete before it was put into action in 1955.

Topped by two Vikings blowing an ancient trumpet called a lur, the Lurblæserne (Lur Blower Column) displays a good deal of artistic license—the lur dates from the Bronze Age, 1500 BC, whereas the Vikings lived a mere 1,000 years ago. City tours often start at this landmark, which was erected in 1914. Look up to see one of the city's most charming bronze sculptures, created by the Danish artist E. Utzon Frank in 1936. Across H. C. Andersens Boulevard, atop a corner office building, are an old neon thermometer and a gilded barometer. On sunny days there's a golden sculpture of a girl on a bicycle; come rain, a girl with an umbrella appears.