Marble Church

The Marble Church — officially Frederik's Church — is the most expensive embarrassment in Danish architectural history. Construction began in 1749 as the centrepiece of the new Frederiksstaden district, designed by Nicolai Eigtved to rival St. Peter's in Rome. The original plan called for the entire building to be clad in Norwegian marble, and King Frederik V laid the foundation stone with tremendous ceremony. Then the money ran out. Eigtved died in 1754. The project stuttered, stopped, and eventually stalled completely in 1770, leaving an unfinished ruin that sat in the middle of Copenhagen for over a century.

For 145 years, the half-built church was one of the most prominent eyesores in the city — a roofless shell of Norwegian marble slowly deteriorating in the Danish rain. Various proposals were made to finish it, demolish it, or convert it into something else, but nothing happened until industrialist C.F. Tietgen purchased the ruin in 1874 and funded its completion. Architect Ferdinand Meldahl redesigned the building, replacing the unaffordable Norwegian marble with Danish limestone to actually finish the job. The church was finally consecrated on August 19, 1894 — 145 years after construction began.

The dome is the star attraction. At 31 metres in diameter, it is the largest church dome in Scandinavia and one of the largest in Europe, inspired by St. Peter's in Rome. The interior is decorated with painted panels depicting the twelve apostles, and the dome itself is supported by twelve buttresses that give the exterior its distinctive circular profile. Twelve statues of religious figures line the roof, visible from the street below.

Standing on Frederiksgade, you get the perfect view: the Marble Church dome framed at one end, Amalienborg Palace in the middle, and the Copenhagen Opera House across the harbour at the other. It is one of the great architectural axes in Europe, and it only exists because someone finally had the decency — and the money — to finish what a king started.