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National Geographic : 1974 May
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In a city famous for its pretty girls, she's most beloved of all Copenhagen's lovely Little Mermaid, perched gracefully on her rock at the harbor shore, was created in bronze by sculptor Edvard Eriksen. The fairy-tale heroine sent all of Copenhagen into mourning and nearly created an international furor when she was decapitated by vandals in 1964. Not until a new head was skillfully cast from the original 1913 mold and fitted to her slim figure was the city restored to its normal good appetite and spirits. Copenhagen is indeed world famous for both food and fun. One Dane, a multimillionaire industrialist who commutes to work in his sailboat each day, told a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC staff writer that "if the warrior bishop Absalon hadn't founded Copenhagen in the 12th century, the place would have been invented by Hans Christian Andersen or Walt Disney." But a hard-working city it is, too. The Danes' centuries-old love affair with the sea has made Copenhagen a booming port. With its 25 miles of quays, its busy merchant fleet, and its great marine-engine and shipbuilding complex, it is first in Scandinavia. Danish beer, meat, and dairy products whet jaded appetites throughout the civilized world. Danish craftsmen and designers, working in precious metals and rich teakwood, have become silversmiths and cabinet makers to the world. Their clean, bold lines typify the best of 20th-century design. But over all of this industry hover the lighthearted spirits of Hans Christian Andersen, immortal storyteller, and of good King Christian IV, 17th century master-builder. From King Christian's vision came much of central Copenhagen's rich beauty-classic structures with graceful arched doorways, elegant towers and spires soaring above wide plazas, and the Stock Exchange, with its fanciful tower formed by the entwined tails of four copper dragons. Tivoli, best known and very possibly best of Europe's amusement parks, is certainly in the spirit of the great king. A glittering 20-acre fairyland of light, Tivoli is a mid-city magnet for gourmets and concert-goers, young or old, king or commoner. Its restau rants, theaters, concert halls, playgrounds, fun house, and fireworks displays have enchanted more than 150 million people in a century and a quarter. Here Copenhageners feast on their distinctive smorrebrod,a sort of portable smorgasbord made of a single slice of bread piled high with meat, smoked fish, and other savory edibles. As Copenhagen delights the eye and palate, her people de light the visitor with their warmth and good cheer. Copenhagen, Addis Ababa, Mexico City, Bangkok-the sights and sounds and colors of the world's great crossroads readers visit them often in the pages of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. fij,, - .. -- -. Yi *i. r .yh 1( e ~w, *
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