Capitals of the Northlands: Tales of Ten CitiesHannah, Ian C.
History
Capitals of the Northlands: Tales of Ten Cities
Hannah, Ian C.
Capitals (Cities); Russia -- Description and travel; Scandinavia -- Description and travel
[59] What remained of Axelhus was destroyed in 1740, when
Christiansborg Palace was erected to gratify a whim of the German
Queen, Sophia Magdalena of Kulmbach-Bayreuth. This structure was burned
down in 1794 to be replaced by the palace burned in 1884, which was
built in 1828 from designs by Hansen. The Rigsdag met there.
The present citadel, protected by water and grass banks, buried in
trees which hang over the moats, and dominated by a windmill, is on the
Sound at the other end of the Amager channel. Most of the grass-grown
rampart walls (near which was Andersen's Warton Almshouse) that
surrounded the town and connected with the citadel have been removed,
as Copenhagen had spread far beyond them, and they had become entirely
out of date.
[60] Fergusson is most unkind in his references to Danish Renaissance
buildings, particularly this structure, "of which the inhabitants of
Copenhagen pretend to be proud."
[61] Trinity Church, of which this observatory is architecturally at
any rate the tower, is a really noteworthy specimen of seventeenth
century Gothic. Tall pointed windows pierce the walls along the sides
and round the apse; octagonal pillars sustain the high-ribbed vault
with painted bosses. There is no clearstorey, and the effect within is
as striking as it is simple.
[62] Hans Andersen. Brahe did not accept the Copernican system, though
he first noticed the variations in the motions of the moon, and has
hardly been excelled as a practical astronomer. He died in the service
of the Emperor at Prague, 1601.
[63] Practically forming part of the same design as the Amalienborg,
and admirably completing it, is the Frederiks Kirke, which raises a
great dome behind a Corinthian portico to the height of over 260 feet.
Its construction dragged on from 1749 to 1894. The view from the top
passes that from the Round Tower.
[64] But while interest in the past, far more widespread than in most
other countries, has done very much to bring objects of interest to the
National Museum, England has been incomparably more happy than Denmark
in preserving for generations yet to come the buildings of mediæval and
Renaissance days (p. 125).
[65] English education, in some ways excellent, attaches far too
little importance to stimulating the imagination. I once met a very
intelligent Cornishman who had been through the schools of his native
county with credit, and could speak interestingly on many subjects,
but he had never even heard of King Arthur. That is anything but an
isolated instance.
[66] Nor is it well to forget that the main reason for their great
success is that the Danes are sufficiently educated to co-operate,
instead of deeming every neighbour a necessary rival. Both town and
country benefit alike. The capital is provided with pure milk at about
half the London prices by the Copenhagen Milk Supply Company, from
which the very poor may have milk for their babies without money and
without price.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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