7 Fairytale Places in Copenhagen

Delia Tugui | December 21, 2015

Once upon a time, there was a traveler getting ready for the next journey. A special one, filled with fairytale places. The plane ticket displayed the upcoming destination, a Scandinavian one: Copenhagen, Denmark.

Castles, palaces, Hans Christian Andersen’s stories, Vikings, cobblestone streets, and beautiful old houses – this will be the most magical time of my life!, the traveler thought before getting off the plane.

1. Did you ever hear the story of the Little Mermaid?

The first place that the traveler decided to visit is one of the most significant emblems of the Danish capital: the Little Mermaid statue.

As many of us have grown up with Hans Christian Andersen’ wonderful stories, chances are that Copenhagen makes the traveler associate it with the Little Mermaid or Den lille havfrue, as locals call her. The famous Disney movie with the same title is inspired by this captivating tale.

The elegant statue is located on a cliff in Langelinie, right in the city’s harbor and it’s linked to a couple of well-known legends. The first one says that the Oresund’s gorge waters’ only inhabitants were mermaids. The other one is a story about the beautiful mermaid who wished her soul to be eternal.

Back in 2013, the Little Mermaid statue celebrated a century of proudly resting on the cliff. When first seeing the slender statue, the traveler had two surprises: its beauty and its size – the monument measures just 1 meter and 25 centimeters height. But there’s so much allurement, grace and sophisticated simplicity within this small package!

While staring at the charming mermaid, the traveler heard a guide telling the following story: in 1909, the Carlsberg beer founder, Carl Jacobsen Brewer, watched the Little Mermaid play, written by Hans Beck and Fini Henriques and based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story. Deeply impressed by the tale, he asked sculptor Edvard Eriksen to make a sculpture that depicts the mermaid. The bronze statue was unveiled at Langelinie on the 23^rd of August 1913.

S-F / Shutterstock.com

Who would have known that interesting tale? Not the traveler, for sure!

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