This is a photo of one of the most controversial statues in Copenhagen. When created in 1901 by sculptor Niels Hansen Jacobsen it caused quite a stir because it was placed in front of The Church of Jesus in Valby and was called Troll Smelling Christian Blood. That just wouldn't do in the petit bourgeois of Copenhagen. The church was paid for by brewer Carl Jacobsen of Carlsberg who also commissioned the statue and he bowed to the pressure from his equals. The statue was then moved to the garden around Carl Jacobsen's museum Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket where it stands today. A copy was made and placed at its original place in front of the church in 2002 to celebrate it's 100th birthday under similar protests that were largely ignored this time. A second copy is placed in Vejen as part of the Troll Fountain.
I like this statue and I am not a very religious person, but placing it in front of a church seems to me at least a bit insensitive still today.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful shot from an effective angle!
I have to agree with you; it's not the best of ideas to place this in front of a church, but it's very characteristic for how people think here. No-one and nothing is above debate, criticism or ridicule. IMHO not the best of the national character of Danes.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent and daring idea to place this in front of the church and I'm glad that there now at the least exists a copy in it's rightful place. You can't ignore your history
ReplyDeletewell what do you expect from a people that drew a bomb on the prophet Muhammad's head..I am not muslim but how stupid can you get??
ReplyDeleteIn Denmark we've had the debate about the freedom of speech after the Muhammed cartoons. To the power-that-be the freedom of speech trumps common decency any day. I must confess that I don't agree on that; just because you can say something ugly about other people, doesn't mean that you have to do it.
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