Den Lille Havfrue

NileGuide Expert tip:

Try viewing the Little Mermaid as part of a harbor tour.

Description:

• Denmark's most photographed tourist attraction is also the nation's smallest and, for many, something of an anticlimax. A tribute to the most well known of Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen's characters, the bronze figurine The Little Mermaid has sat on her rock out in the Øresund Channel along Langelinie since 1913; over the decades she has been vandalized numerous times, most famously in 1964, when she was decapitated in what later turned out to be an artist's prank. In 2006, The Little Mermaid acquired a neighbor, Bjørn Nørgaard's 'Genetically Modified Mermaid', a contemporary commentary on the landmark. In 2010, The Little Mermaid was moved for the first time ever, when it was exhibited in Shanghai as part of world exhibition EXPO's Danish Pavilion.
• © NileGuide2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010