The biggest lion

Sorrow, victory and triumph are linked to the fantastic story of the Isted lion. It seems like it is sleeping, but you should not let the peace it radiates from the top of its pedestal, at the Søren Kirkegaard Square fool you. With its nose towards the wind and eyes screwed up, it is a guard, as like written on the pedestal: ”Faithfulness should be guard at the grave”. One of the reasons for choosing the lion motive was that it was used on the common shield for Denmark and Slesvig in the fought over area at the Danish/German border. Read more about the changing life of the Isted lion here. From the Isted lion we recommend you make a trip along the Frederiksholms Channel with a view at the yellow materials yard, where the lion was made. On weekdays you may be lucky to find the gates to number 16 and 18 open. In the relief on the top of the gate there is a lion couple, a male and a female. They stem from the famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Alexander-Frieze, which depicts Alexander the Great’s triumphal procession into Babylon. This can be experienced in more versions at the Thorvaldsen Museum. Yes, lions are crossing each others tracks and historical events in Copenhagen.