Best Churches in Copenhagen: Top 10 Most Stunning, Ranked

The green copper dome spans 31 metres and looks like St Peter's Basilica had a baby with Danish restraint. Construction started in 1749, then stalled for over 120 years when the money ran out, the half-built shell sat as a gorgeous ruin until a wealthy financier funded its completion in 1894. Inside, light floods through tall windows onto paintings of the twelve apostles ringing the dome; outside, statues of Danish church figures, including Kierkegaard, line the exterior.

• Address: Frederiksgade 4, near Amalienborg Palace
• Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-17:00 (Fri from 12:00), Sun 13:00-17:00
• Cost: Church free; dome tour around 50 DKK adults, 20 DKK children, daily in summer, weekends only in winter
• Nearest station: Marmorkirken Metro (M3/M4)
• Open Marmorkirken in Google Maps

Tip: Visit Amalienborg right across the street afterward, the two sit on the same "Marble Axis" sightline toward the harbour and Opera House, one of the city's most impressive urban vistas.

After the British Navy destroyed the previous church in the 1807 bombardment of Copenhagen, architect C.F. Hansen rebuilt it in austere neoclassical style between 1810 and 1829. Bertel Thorvaldsen's marble statue of Christ with open arms, the original, later copied in churches worldwide, dominates the altar, flanked by his statues of the twelve apostles along the nave. Hans Christian Andersen's funeral (1875) and Crown Prince Frederik's wedding to Mary Donaldson (2004) both took place here.

• Address: Nørregade 8, near Indre By
• Hours: Mon-Sat 8:00-17:00, Sun 12:00-17:00
• Cost: Free (donations welcome)
• Nearest station: Nørreport
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Tip: Free organ concerts run most Saturdays around noon. If you love Thorvaldsen's work, his dedicated museum on Slotsholmen, covered in our museums guide, is a natural next stop.

Nothing else in Copenhagen looks like this. Architect P.V. Jensen-Klint's expressionist design, built 1921-1940 to honour priest and hymn writer N.F.S. Grundtvig, rises 49 metres in stepped yellow brick that reads as pure Gothic organ pipe from the street. Inside, plain glass windows and unadorned brick let the proportions do all the talking; the church seats 1,440 and its 1965 Marcussen organ has 4,052 pipes. Jensen-Klint died before completion, his son Kaare, later famous for his own furniture designs, finished the job.

• Address: På Bjerget 14B, Bispebjerg
• Hours: Mon-Sat 9:00-16:00 (Thu until 18:00), Sun 12:00-16:00 (13:00 in winter)
• Cost: Free
• Getting there: Bus 6A from Nørreport, alight at Bispebjerg Torv
• Open Grundtvig's Church in Google Maps

Tip: Combine with Bispebjerg Cemetery's cherry blossom avenue in spring, and grab coffee afterward in Nørrebro, a short walk away. Morning light is best for photos of the brick facade.

Princess Alexandra of Denmark, who became Queen Consort of the UK, helped fund this church for Copenhagen's English community in the 1880s. Architect Arthur Blomfield's Gothic Revival design uses flint, common in England but rare in Denmark, giving it a distinctly transplanted character right beside Østerbro's green edge. Fifteen tubular bells chime automatically every quarter hour across the surrounding park, and the setting, right by Kastellet and the Gefion Fountain, is one of the most peaceful in the city.

• Address: Churchillparken 11
• Hours (Apr-Sept): Mon-Sat 10:00-13:00, Sun 13:00-16:00
• Cost: Free
• Nearest station: Østerport
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Tip: Services run in English, part of the Church of England's Diocese in Europe. Combine easily with a walk through Kastellet, part of our heritage sites and monuments guide, and the Gefion Fountain next door.

Locals call it the Theatre Church for good reason: Nicolai Eigtved's 1759 rococo design places tiered galleries around three sides of the room, so it genuinely resembles an 18th-century playhouse from the inside. Originally built for Christianshavn's German community, the altarpiece stacks a pulpit and organ vertically above it in an unusual "integrated altarpiece" layout. The Dalai Lama has spoken here, and the crypt holds 46 burial chapels still in occasional use.

• Address: Strandgade 1, Christianshavn
• Hours: Vary by season, check the church's current schedule
• Cost: Free
• Nearest station: Christianshavn Metro
• Open Christian's Church in Google Maps

Tip: Check for concerts, the theatre-style acoustics make this one of the best chamber-music venues in the city. It's a short walk from Freetown Christiania if you want to combine the two.

Built 1881-1883 as a gift from Tsar Alexander III to his Danish-born wife Princess Dagmar, this is Copenhagen's one piece of 17th-century Muscovite architecture, and it stands out instantly among the city's Scandinavian rooflines. Red-and-grey brick with sandstone trim leads up to the three gleaming domes; inside, mosaics, icons and a mosaic floor create a genuinely different atmosphere from anywhere else on this list, especially when six synchronised bells chime through the day.

• Address: Bredgade 53, a few metres from Marmorkirken
• Hours: Very limited, roughly Fri 17:00-18:00, Sat 09:30-12:00 and 16:30-19:30, Sun 09:30-13:00, check before visiting
• Cost: Free (donations appreciated)
• Nearest station: Marmorkirken Metro
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Tip: Hours are genuinely limited, plan around them rather than dropping by on a whim. Pair it with Marmorkirken and Amalienborg for one dense cluster of sights on Bredgade.

Originally an anchor forge from 1563, King Christian IV converted the building into a naval church in 1619, and it has stayed tied to the Danish navy ever since. It's one of the few buildings to survive both of Copenhagen's great fires (1728 and 1795) and the bombardments of 1658 and 1807, so its Dutch Renaissance interior, oak altarpiece and pulpit both from the 1660s, is genuinely 17th century. Queen Margrethe II was baptised, married and had her children baptised here, and naval heroes Niels Juel and Peter Tordenskjold are buried in its chapel.

• Address: Holmens Kanal 21, near Christiansborg Palace
• Hours: Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat 10:00-16:00, Tue/Thu 10:00-15:30, Sun and holidays 12:00-16:00
• Cost: Free
• Nearest station: Kongens Nytorv
• Open Holmen's Church in Google Maps

Tip: Look up for the votive model ship hanging from the ceiling, a Copenhagen naval-church tradition. It's usually quieter than the more tourist-heavy churches on this list.

Founded in 1296 as part of a hospital, this is the oldest structure still standing in Copenhagen, and walking in halfway down Strøget feels like stepping out of the shopping street and back seven centuries. The main building was destroyed in the 1728 fire, but what survived, plus a bell tower reconstructed in 1880 and a Renaissance portal from 1630 bearing Christian IV's monogram, still carries real medieval weight. Regular concerts, including free Christmas performances, keep it a living part of the neighbourhood rather than a relic.

• Address: Niels Hemmingsens Gade 5, midway along Strøget
• Hours: Mon-Fri 12:00-16:00, Sat 11:00-13:00, Sun open only during service
• Cost: Free
• Nearest station: Nørreport or Kongens Nytorv
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Tip: A genuinely good shopping break on Strøget, and worth checking the events calendar for free concerts if you're visiting around the holidays or during Copenhagen's festival season.

Trinitatis Church anchors the same 1637-1656 complex as the Round Tower next door, King Christian IV's ambitious combination of church, university library and astronomical observatory under one roof. The baroque interior's Italian-style organ and carved wooden ceiling are genuinely worth the visit on their own, and a glass viewing window inside the Round Tower's spiral ramp lets you look down into the nave without a separate ticket, a detail most visitors climbing the tower miss entirely.

• Address: Købmagergade 52, part of the Rundetårn complex
• Hours: Often closed outside services, but viewable from the Round Tower's window; check the church's own schedule for public opening times
• Cost: Free to view from the Round Tower window; the tower itself charges around 40 DKK
• Nearest station: Nørreport
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Tip: Combine with climbing the Round Tower itself, its spiral ramp instead of stairs is one of the easiest viewpoints in the city, full details in our heritage sites and monuments guide.