The charming landmark of the Danish capital
The Little Mermaid
Perched on a granite boulder by the waterfront below the Kastellet fortress, the Little Mermaid gazes out at the sea - quiet, bronze and barely 1.25 meters tall.
She seems delicate and it’s easy to see why she’s known as the smallest landmark in the world.
The sculpture was created in 1913 by Copenhagen-based artist Edvard Eriksen.
He modelled the mermaid’s face after the celebrated Danish ballerina Ellen Price.
When the prima ballerina politely declined to pose nude for the figure’s body, Eriksen turned to someone a little more obliging - his wife Eline. Evidently, she didn’t make a fuss.
In his mind, Eriksen envisioned the mermaid from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale - the one who longs so deeply to be part of the human world.
“When she returned, she had a hundred things to tell, but the loveliest of all, she said, was to lie in the moonlight on a sandbank in the quiet sea, gazing at the city lights flickering like hundreds of stars, listening to the music and the bustle, the rumbling of carriages, the voices of people, the ringing of bells and the church spires rising into the sky.”
Of course, you might wonder whether all the hype surrounding this petite figure doesn’t somehow diminish the magic.
But those who look into her dreamy expression early in the morning, while most of Copenhagen still sleeps or watch the city lights shimmer behind her silhouette just after sunset, when the crowds have disappeared, might remember that somewhere, someone is longing, just like we are, right now, to be in this beautiful city of Copenhagen.
