Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid Statue: Honestly, You Need More Than This

The Little Mermaid (Den Lille Havfrue) is a bronze statue sitting on a rock at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen harbour, 1.25 metres tall. It was commissioned by the Carlsberg brewery founder Carl Jacobsen and unveiled in 1913, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale and by a ballet performance of the same story. It is Copenhagen’s most visited tourist attraction by a considerable margin.

It is also, by the assessments of most visitors, smaller than expected, less accessible than the crowds allow, and something you can see properly in under ten minutes if you time your visit right. Being honest about this is more useful than building expectation. The statue itself is lovely and the harbour setting is pleasant; the problem is the sheer number of people attempting to photograph it simultaneously at any point between 10am and 4pm.

The best visit: arrive before 8:30am (the promenade is accessible at all hours), walk from the S-train station at Osterport (10 minutes). At 8am you may have the statue essentially to yourself. At 10am the tour buses start arriving.

What the Statue Has Survived

The statue has a more interesting history than most people realise. It has been repeatedly vandalised and attacked: the head was sawn off and stolen in 1964 (never recovered; a new head was cast from the original mould), the right arm was removed in 1984, it was decapitated again in 1998, pushed off its rock in 2003, and daubed with paint on multiple occasions. The current statue is a combination of repaired original material and replacement casts. The resilience of a bronze statue is not something you typically think about, but this one has required it.

Hans Christian Andersen’s original story is considerably darker than the Disney film: the mermaid does not get the prince, turns into sea foam, and ascends as a spirit. The statue’s melancholy expression, which most photographs fail to capture due to distance and crowd context, reflects this original ending.

Copenhagen Beyond the Statue

Copenhagen rewards more time than a statue visit implies.

Nyhavn is the canal with the multicoloured merchant houses that appears in essentially all Copenhagen photography. Hans Christian Andersen lived at number 20 for many years. The waterfront restaurants serve herring, smoked salmon, and open-faced sandwiches (smorrebrod) at tourist prices; the street a block back has better prices for the same food.

Tivoli Gardens, opened in 1843, is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world (Disneyland’s designers visited here for inspiration) and a central Copenhagen institution. It runs May to September and again at Christmas; the gardens are beautiful in evening lighting. Entry costs around 170 DKK for adults without rides; ride tickets are additional.

The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) is free and has outstanding Viking and Bronze Age collections. The Danish prehistoric artefacts (including the Trundholm Sun Chariot from around 1400 BCE) are among the best preserved in the world and are displayed in a way that does not require specialised knowledge to appreciate.

Rosenborg Castle in the King’s Garden is a 17th-century castle housing the Danish crown jewels and royal regalia, surrounded by one of the city’s best parks. Entry around 130 DKK; worthwhile.

Freetown Christiania, the self-declared autonomous neighbourhood established in 1971 in a former military barracks, has a complicated history that is genuinely interesting if you read about it before visiting. The open-air cannabis market on Pusher Street operates in a legal grey area; street photography there is explicitly discouraged by residents. The neighbourhood has a community feel and some decent food establishments.

Getting Around Copenhagen

Copenhagen’s Metro and S-tog (suburban rail) are clean, reliable, and cover the city well. Cycling is the local transport mode of choice; bike rental is available city-wide and the cycling infrastructure is probably the best in Europe. Most visitors arriving by train enter at Copenhagen Central Station, which is 10 minutes’ walk from Tivoli and 25 minutes from the Little Mermaid on foot.

The Copenhagen Card (24h, 48h, or 72h versions) covers all public transport and entry to most museums; check which museums are included before buying, as it pays for itself primarily through museum access rather than transport alone.