New York has its Lady Liberty and Sydney its (Danish-designed) Opera House. When the world thinks of Copenhagen, the chances are they're thinking of the Little Mermaid. A modest monument sitting out on a rock in the harbor, she doubtless provokes strong feelings. Carl Jacobsen commissioned the statue in 1909 after being entranced by the ballet of the Little Mermaid. The ballerina, Ellen Price, who had played her refused to pose nude for the artist, Edvard Eriksen, so his wife, Eline Eriksen, posed for him, with the face modeled on the star.
She has frequently been the victim of vandalism, beheaded in 1964, having an arm severed (and then returned) in 1984, with another attempted beheading in 1990, then her head was cut off for the second time in 1998. In 2003 explosives blew her off her perch, but she was discovered in the harbor and put back in her spot. So if you find the 1.25m statue underwhelming, you can at least admire her awe-inspiring resilience.
Just past Kastellet on the Langelinie quay, you’ll run into Bjørn Nørgaard’s Genetically Modified Little Mermaid, a cheeky rejoinder to the persistent mermaid-mania.
