Copenhagen

The capital of Denmark, a city of green copper spires and canals spread across islands where the Sound narrows, founded as a bishop's fortified harbour in the twelfth century and grown into a royal seat. Much of the old inner city was rebuilt after the great fires and the British bombardment of eighteen oh seven, a Neoclassical town laid over a medieval plan around the long pedestrian street of Stroeget, the Round Tower and the cathedral. On the harbour stand the coloured merchant houses of Nyhavn, the four rococo palaces of Amalienborg and the domed Marble Church, and the little bronze mermaid on her rock; across the water, on the island where the city began, parliament sits in Christiansborg, and the golden spiral spire of Our Saviour rises over the canal quarter of Christianshavn and the free town of Christiania. Read the harbour capital at your own pace.