Viking heritage
Denmark is home to some fascinating reminders of Viking civilization: circular fortresses. These perfect circles, protected by earthen ramparts, palisades and ditches, were divided into quadrants by two wide "streets" intersecting at right angles and leading to four gates, each oriented towards a cardinal point. Each quadrant was home to several longhouses. With their silhouette of slightly bulging walls reminiscent of an overturned ship, they impress with their size and powerful architecture, supported by interior and exterior wooden pillars. The walls were protected by a layer of clay, while the roof, generally thatched, could also be covered with small wooden tiles. The interior is divided into three spaces: two small rooms at either end, used as bedrooms or storage areas, and a vast main hall housing the house's central, half-buried hearth. Trelleborg, Frykat and Aggersborg are the country's most famous Viking fortresses.
At Lindholm Hoje, you'll discover Viking burial rituals. This vast cemetery is home to some 700 tombs marked out by stones arranged in astonishing geometric patterns. As for the Jelling site, it marks the transition between pagan funeral rites - as evidenced by the two peat mounds housing an oak burial chamber in the northern one - and Christian worship (remains of wooden churches have been found beneath the present-day church). Genius carpenters, the Vikings were able to develop ingenious techniques such as mortise and tenon joints, enabling logs to fit together perfectly for maximum strength. Wood could also be carved for decorative purposes, notably on gables and portals.
Medieval wealth
From the 11th and 12th centuries onwards, stone replaced wood, as evidenced by the beautiful ashlar church of Tveje Merlose in Holbaek. Romanesque art is characterized by rather massive, compact buildings with flat-ceilinged naves and semicircular arches. In turn, stone was replaced by local brick. Saint-Bendts in Ringsted and Notre-Dame in Kalundborg were the first examples. The latter, with its octagonal towers, is reminiscent of Byzantine architecture, as is Ribe Cathedral, all sandstone and tuff, with its dome at the transept crossing. Its southern portal remains one of the rare examples of Romanesque sculpture in Denmark.
Not to be missed on the island of Bornholm, at Osterlar, are the astonishing Romanesque churches... also circular! Rural churches, particularly in Sjaelland, mark the transition to Gothic. You can recognize them by their whitewashed walls, red-tiled roofs, massive square towers and stepped curves. Roskilde Cathedral is without doubt the finest example of Danish Gothic architecture. Its red-brick silhouette, dominated by two towers topped by slender spires, and its high cross-vaults are all manifestations of this art of height and lightness... as are the superb ribbed vaults and pointed arches of St. Knuds Cathedral in Odensee.
The Middle Ages also saw a proliferation of civil buildings adorned with Gothic elements. This was the advent of town halls, which bore witness to urban power. Odensee's town hall, inspired by Siena's Palazzo Pubblico, and Naestve's Radhuskirken, the country's oldest civil building, are proud examples. The towns are organized around a main square, torvet, and a main shopping street, stroget, the rest blending into a tangle of narrow cobbled streets... A picturesque atmosphere perfectly preserved in Aarhus or Ebeltoft.
Renaissance and Baroque
The Danish Renaissance clearly bears the influence of Holland: elegantly proportioned red-brick buildings with scrolled gables, towers topped with domes and spires, and rich sandstone decorations. Kronborg Castle, designed by Flemish masters, and Frederiksborg Palace, dubbed the Danish Versailles, are the finest examples. Kronborg is the work of Christian IV, nicknamed the Builder King. He was responsible for the development of Copenhagen, including the Christianshavn district centered around the Kastellet, the city's citadel, of which only the Jarmers Tower remains today. In this new district, as in many other cities in the country, half-timbered houses, recognizable by their thatched roofs and elongated structures, have sprung up.
In Koge, you can admire the country's oldest half-timbered house, dating back to 1527. And don't miss the historic district of Aarhus, with its superb red and yellow houses. Christian IV was also responsible for two of the capital's most astonishing buildings: the Round Tower, with its 7.5-fold ramp reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, and the Stock Exchange, whose spiral spire towered 56 m above the city before it burned to the ground in 2024. A highly personal architectural style, whose forms herald the exuberant Baroque and its Italian influences. Copenhagen's Church of Our Saviour, with its external spiral staircase and spiral spire, is inspired by the works of Franscesco Borromini, master of the Italian Baroque. Baroque sublimated the staging of nature, particularly at Fredensborg, which was inspired by Italian villas.
Copenhagen was to undergo further transformations under the impetus of architect Nicolaï Eigtved, whose style blended rococo exuberance with classical harmony. He was responsible for the Frederiksstaden district: its wide avenues lined with sumptuous bourgeois homes all converge on the large square dominated by the Amalienborg Palace, whose elegant classical facades contrast with the rococo ornamental overload of the living rooms. We also owe him the famous Marmorkirken, whose dome was inspired by St. Peter's in Rome.
Neoclassicism and national romanticism
Hard hit by the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, the capital underwent major reconstruction work in the neoclassical style. The great architect of the time was Frederik Christian Hansen, famous for the simplicity of his style, which some described as austere and severe, as seen in the Court of Justice, with its imposing stone facade clad in colonnades, Notre-Dame Cathedral, where the podium supports Doric columns and a sculpted pediment reminiscent of ancient temples, and the Thorvaldsen Museum, inspired by the Parthenon.
These classical lines gave way to a historicist style that sought to redefine national identity. This was known as National Romanticism. Its two great exponents are Martin Nyrop and Vilhelm Dahlerup. The former is responsible for Copenhagen City Hall, whose brick-red silhouette borrows as much from Nordic Gothic as from Italian Gothic. To the latter, we owe the National Art Museum (whose harmonious lines are inspired by the Italian Renaissance), theHotel d'Angleterre and, above all, the great Carlsberg Brewery complex, with its blend of antiquity, Florentine inspiration and Gothic power. These historicist forms also accompanied the first impulses of modernity. Copenhagen' s Central Station is an astonishing blend of medieval lines and metal architectural prowess, while the neo-Gothic silhouette of the Palace Hotel reveals sumptuous Art Nouveau elements (superb ironwork with soft, harmonious curves).
Triumph of modernity
TheGrundtvig church is a spectacular example of the transition between historicism and modernity. Its bold vertical lines and red brick silhouette are obvious borrowings from the Gothic, but the distortion of its forms is the result of a very modern expressionism. The real modernity came with Arne Jacobsen and his Fremtidens Hus, which won him the 1929 House of the Future competition, thanks to such ingenious gadgets as a dust extraction system installed under the entrance mat! Jacobsen went on to lay the foundations of Scandinavian organic modernism, combining rationality, functionality, respect for materials and respect for the natural environment. He was responsible for the Bellavista building in Klampenborg, the Aarhus town hall and the Rodovre town hall, superb examples of the functional use of natural materials in a sober, elegant style, tinting the international style with very personal touches.
The other great figure of Danish modernity is Jorn Utzon (creator of the legendary Sydney Opera House!), who combined regional culture with universal values, as in theBagsvaerd church. Much in demand during the post-war reconstruction period, he developed new housing solutions with his Utzonian Houses, recognizable by their yellow-brick silhouette, their walls extending into the surrounding terrain and their large, light, fluid interior spaces. The architect's house in Hellebaek is considered his manifesto. He also designed housing estates as landscape compositions. One example is the Kingo Houses development in Helsingor, whose L-shaped houses are directly inspired by traditional Danish farmhouses.
Museums are the most evocative vectors of modernity, like the North Jutland Museum of Fine Arts designed by Elissa and Alvar Aalto, all marble and glass, whose interior spaces are divided by movable partitions offering clarity and light.
Contemporary effervescence
Denmark is a leading destination for contemporary architecture enthusiasts. Here you can discover the work of great international architects, such as Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum of Denmark, Zaha Hadid's extension to the Ordrupgaar Museum, and Kengo Kuma's Enchanted House in Odensee, to be inaugurated in 2021, whose structure is inspired by Andersen's fairy tales.
But above all, you'll discover the incredible vivacity of Danish contemporary design with :
- the Black Diamond in Copenhagen by the Schmidt-Hammer-Lassen agency (a new cube-shaped wing of the Royal Library, all black marble and smoked glass); the ARos museum in Aarhus, an astonishing red cube with circular interior spaces; the residential complex called La Vague in Bolgen and the Copenhagen Opera House by Henning Larsen, whose reinforced concrete structure and façade enhanced by a steel grille caused a bit of controversy! No controversy, however, for Arken, a structure rising out of the dunes designed by Soren Robert Lund.
And the 3XN agency is responsible for the astonishing twisted towers of the Bella Sky Hotel (Scandinavia's largest design hotel) and Planète Bleue - Europe's largest aquarium, whose silhouette undulates like a wave.
But the big star of Danish architecture is Bjarke Ingels: transformation of the Orestad district with buildings such as the Big House (an astonishing residential complex in the shape of an 8) or The Mountain (awarded the prize for the world's best residential complex in 2008); the Maritime Museum in Helsingor, built on an old dried-up pier and accessed by futuristic-looking footbridges. But his craziest project is undoubtedly CopenHill or Amagger Bakke. This is a waste incinerator imagined as an artificial mountain. Above the structure, which alternates aluminum bricks and large glass windows, the entirely vegetated roof is transformed into... a ski slope! A way of making sustainable architecture fun. Other sustainable projects include organic houses that convert agricultural waste into building materials... And who knows, maybe some architects will take inspiration from the amazing seaweed-roofed houses on the island of Laeso to imagine the sustainable house of tomorrow? In July 2023, as the World Capital of Architecture, Copenhagen will host the UIA-UNESCO World Congress!
Getaway to the Faroes
The Faroe Islands are famous for their traditional houses with grass roofs. Inspired by the techniques developed by the Vikings, these houses of dry stone or wood are covered with a roof made of squares of grass and peat placed on birch bark, the whole ensuring a perfect insulation. The houses in Tjornuvik are good examples, as is the medieval farmhouse on the island of Koltur. The city center of Toshavn, it, preserves the charm of the small medieval cities with its narrow lanes and its wooden houses. On the promontory of Tinganes, the red wooden houses housing the governmental authorities almost make the place look like a doll's village. Do not miss the village of Kirkjubur. Famous for housing one of the oldest wooden houses in Europe (a black wooden farmhouse with red framed windows), the village also has a pretty little 11th century church with whitewashed walls and an overturned ship's hull roof, a tradition found in many fishing villages, also populated with small low houses (to avoid being caught in the wind) and dressed in bright colors.
But the archipelago is also home to some beautiful contemporary creations, such as the Nordic House by Norwegian Ola Steen, which combines modern design with a green roof, or Glasir-Torshavn College, a real architectural whirlwind by several architects including...Bjarke Ingels! And let's not forget the engineering feats carried out to link the islands together. The latest one: the Eysturoyartunnilin linking Streymay and Eysturoy and having probably the only underwater traffic circle in the world. A stone medusa illuminated in blue, this traffic circle is the work of the artist Trondur Patursson... a Faroese of course!
