155 Copenhagen cathedral : extremely apostolic
Copenhagen cathedral, aka Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue Kirke), is chunky, neoclassical and Lutheran. The Lutherans left the Catholic Church around 1521 accompanied by the Edict of Worms (which, unsurprisingly, had no connection with creepy crawlies). The Lutherans, like the Catholics, claim to stand in the true tradition of the apostles.
After the previous cathedral had been destroyed by the bombs of the British
Navy, the new church was finished in the late 1820s and is so blooming
apostolic that it has statues of the full set of twelve apostles around the
aisles, including the ones you had forgotten. I have never seen all twelve
inside a church before. Now, they decided, fair enough, that Judas Iscariot should
not get a statue, for obvious reasons, but they didn’t want an odd number, so
St Paul is in there too, although he was not an apostle (cos was busy in his
job as a Pharisee).
On the altar is a statue of Jesus, labelled « Come to me », and
as you arrive at the church you are greeted by doorway statues of Moses and
David.
Inside the Church, the lamps are particularly beautiful, and the pulpit is
fabulous. Danish kings and queens get married here.
Across the road is a monument to the coolness of the Reformation, not as
grand as the one in Geneva, but cheerfully crowded anyway.
