Kjøbenhavns Raadhus - Københavns Biblioteker

unendliche Menge abwechselnder Silhouetten-Wirkungen,
und mit seiner wechselnden Einteilung der Flächen giebt er
dem Auge des Betrachters mannigfaltige Anregung. Aber
nicht nur die Silhouetten-Wirkung und die Einteilungen der
Flächen sind malerisch; auch in der Zusammenfügung der
Stoffe hat man im Aeusseren und im Innern des Baues nach
malerischer Schönheit gestrebt. Es ist das erste Mal, dass
eine solche stoffliche Polychromie völlig durchgeführt ist in
einem dänischen Bauwerk, und es ist auch das erste grosse
Bauwerk, welches in Dänemark von oben bis unten eine im
THE CITY HALL OF COPENHAGEN.
On the 11th of May 1885 the Municipal Corporation of
Copenhagen resolved to erect a new City Hall. Since the
year 1815 the Municipal Government had its home in the
Court- and Council House, then newly bulit, situated in the
old town on the Nytorv, sharing the premises with the
police and the inferior courts. At the time the Municipal
Council took up its quarters in the new building, the space
was sufficient, but, in the course of time, the business of
City Government increased with the City's development.
Offices to execute the business of a City containing a
population of a little over 100,000 inhabitants were,
naturally, too small when the population had risen to
280,000, by the census of 1885.
Moreover, the Representatives of the City entirely
lacked apartments in which to entertain with fitting dignity
on ceremonial occasions. December 17th 1883 the
Municipal Council had entered into negotiations with the
State to resign its share of the Court and Council House,
and subsequently the whole building was given up to the
Inferior Courts of Justice and to the police. At the meeting
held on May 11th 1885, it was resolved to erect a City Hall
to accomodate worthily the City Corporation, the
Magistracy, the various boards and committees, hitherto
located in various parts of the city, and which should also
contain a suite of ceremonial apartments.
The Site selected for the proposed City Hall was
situated on the City's old rampart domain, immediately
south of the Western Gate, demolished in 1859, and which
was made over to the City in 1870. - It was resolved that the
new edifice should be erected on the spot where formerly
the so-called „Gyldenlöve's Bastion" stood, which was
razed to the ground in 1886. While excavating for the
foundations of the building, it was discovered that the
seamargin had originally extended to a point half way
beneath the Council Hall, so that the City Hall of the
Capital of Denmark, to a great extent, stands on an ancient
sea bottom, a circumstance that has had a bearing on the
plastic and ornamental decoration of the edifice (Fig. 189).
Later this beach was covered up, and here on the night of
the 10th February 1659, the Swedes made their main assault
on Copenhagen, and here still later was raised the green
rampart that at length has had to make way for the new
building. So, although the City Hall of Copenhagen lies
outside the original limits of the town, it Stands upon
historic ground, a fact not overlooked by the architect.
When particulars relating to requirements of space had
been gathered from the various departments concerned, a
scheme was drawn up for the erection of a new edifice, and
in 1888 invitations were issued for sending in competitive
designs. The principal stipulations were the following: The
total cost of the edifice to amount to 2,500,000 Kr., yet of
this sum 500,000 was to be allotted to mechanical
construction and to fees for the architect and civil
engineers. The edifice to be built of natural stone or best
brick, and plaster to be used only as a ground for artistic
decoration. It should contain a covered court, available for
ceremonial functions; a banqueting-hall, Offices for the
City Representatives and the Magistracy, which apartments,
KØBENHAVNS RAADHUS
233
wesentlichen selbständige architektonische und dekorative
Gestaltung gefunden hat. Wir dürfen uns überzeugt halten,
dass der anmutig-ernste Charakter des Gebäudes, das
Aeussere und das Innere, worin sowohl der Durchschnitt
des alltags als die Erhebung festlicher Stimmung zum
Ausdruck gelangt, in den Grundzügen dänisch ist. Wir
dürfen auch dem Urteil der Architekten Skandinaviens und
des Auslandes trauen, wenn sie uns sagen, dass das
Kopenhagener Rathaus als das schönste moderne Gebäude
in Dänemark dasteht.
together with the banqueting-hall, could be used on all
ceremonial occasions. The apartments of the supreme
representative to be situated on the chief-floor, as well as
the offices for the four departments of the Magistracy and
the city archive. The total floor-space required for the four
departments connected with the magistracy was to be at
least 6721 square meters. The covered court should be
about 1182 square meters; the banqueting-hall at least 315
square meters. In all, no less floorspace than 9298 square
meters was required in the New City Hall. For the purpose
of comparison it is instructive to learn that in the year 1800
a floor-space of about 1182 Square meters only had been
required for the Court and Council House.
In response to the invitation, 15 designs were sent in, of
which 6 secured awards. Two received the first awards,
namely those of Valdemar Koch and Martin Nyrop (Fig.
29-33). The last-named architect, born in 1849, had long
enjoyed the esteem of his professional colleagues. He was
the possessor of the Academy's small and large gold
medals. By his work in connection with the Great Northern
Exhibition of Copenhagen in 1888, he had won the
appreciation both of the professionals who admired his
structures in wood, and the greater public, who enjoyed his
lively and richly coloured composition. It may be
mentioned that these buildings were erected on the very
ground where later the new City Hall was to be raised (Fig.
54). In the final competition, though Martin Nyrop did not
achieve the highest award, he won the first prize, and it was
decided that the artist should prepare a fresh design (Fig.
44. 45. 55. 56). This was completed in 1892, and the
Municipal Council, in July of the same year, entrusted
Nyrop with the erecting of the new City Hall, at a cost of
about three and a half million crowns, almost one million
crowns more than originally estimated.
Nyrop's chief assisting architect was Mr. Emil
Jörgensen. Mr. Ambt, at that time City engineer, conducted
the mechanical construction.
On December the 10,1892, the first sod was turned, and
by June the 21st the following year, the excavating work
was finished. November 22th the foundations were
completed, and July 28, 1894, the foundation stone was laid
in the lowest cellar beneath the tower. In the summer of
1898 the framework of the spire of the tower was erected,
but it was not before January 1899 that the copper covering
was laid and the scaffolding taken down. It is the highest
tower in Denmark, and from the footpath to the vane is
105,61 m., of which 67,32 m. is masonry. The tower has a
concrete foundation 4,55 m. thick of which the upper layer
is 3,14 m. thick. The gross weight of the tower is given as
5,285,000 kg. The thickness of the walls at the base is 2,35
m., and at the cornice 1,18 m. Inside the tower is the
„Towsmen's Staircase" which leads to the principal floors
both of the front-building and the back-building (Fig. 80-
87. 90. 91); also the mechanism of the electric clockwork
which controls the four dials, as well as the five bells which
play after the quarters and at 6 and 12 o'clock (Fig. 86. 88).
Separated from the City Hall by a short street is a small
group of buildings, containing the boiler-house from which
the City Hall is heated. The whole structure was ready for
occupation in the autumn of 1899 (Fig. 104-109). As early