Waking in Copenhagen, I like to go inside to look where it’s possible to enter freely. Between using children and grandchildren, I take time for long walks. Joining in, I realised that I had not been to the cathedral for many years since I no longer live in Copenhagen.

Seeing the colossal marble statue of Christ, I remembered a story from my husband’s family who immigrated to the USA more than a hundred years ago. The family in Junction City, Oregon, helped to found a Danish church and had a small copy of that same Christ statue sent to them for the inauguration in 1908. We have read about a young boy in awe because he thought the figure was so vivid and almost like it was Jesus himself.

A volunteer sat in the hall to greet the visitors, and I told her the story about the boy. She had stories about American Mormon visitors who also come to see the statue as they have an even bigger copy. They want to see the original.

About ten years ago, King David’s two hundred and fifty-year-old copper statue from outside the Cathedral was stolen. A hid and run driver had damaged it, and it was taken to a place for repair. I asked the lady about it, and she told me it was stolen from the workplace. As the 2,5 tons and three-meter tall, heavy piece of art disappeared, everybody was convinced that they had been sewn apart and the metal sold. After a few years, it was replaced though the original Jerichov’s sculpture from 1860 was unique.

It is not so easy to take a photo of the Cathedral from the outside as only a part of the building would be visible. On a later occasion, I will take one from the roof of a high building nearby.