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Mon, Tues & Thurs-Sat 10.30am-4.30pm, Wed 10.30am-6.30pm, Sun noon-4.30pm; free. Bus #1, #6 or #9. Topped by a large green dome modelled on - and intended to rival - St Peter's in Rome, the grandiose Marmorkirken ("The Marble Church"; officially called Frederikskirken) was commissioned by Frederik V to be a splendid centre of worship befitting his new royal quarter. Originally designed by Eigtved, Frederik V himself laid the church's first stone in a grand ceremony in 1749. After Eigtved's death in 1754, however, the scheme ran into difficulties, and in 1770 the exorbitant cost of the Norwegian marble being used in the church's construction forced Prime Minister Struensee to abandon the project. The building was then left in disarray for a century, while various plans were mooted as to what to do with it - one proposed turning it into a gasworks - until N.F.S. Grundtvig finally had it completed using cheaper Danish marble (there's a portrait of him in the church, unmissable with flowing white beard and bald head). The church was consecrated in 1894, 145 years after the foundation stone was laid.
Marmorkirken stages classical music concerts, normally on Wednesdays at 4.30pm and usually free - a full programme can be picked up in the church.
The interior of the church is grandly proportioned, if a bit drab - if you look at the walls you can see the materials change from expensive Norwegian to cheaper Danish marble about a quarter of the way up. The best reason to visit the church, however, is to climb the steep, twisting steps, all 260 of them, to the top of the bell tower, where the grand vista of Copenhagen is laid before you. The ascent involves entering the space between the inner and outer domes before climbing through a trap door and out into the elements. On a clear day you can see out to Malmo, Helsingør and across the city to Roskilde - look for the arrows on the bell tower. You can only make the climb from Monday to Friday at 1pm and 3pm (they are very precise about these times), when for 20kr a guide will take you through the passages and staircases that lead to the summit. Next door to Marmorkirken are the gilded onion domes of the Alexsander Nevsky Church , Denmark's only functioning Russian Orthodox Church - look for the "weeping" icon, which from time to time allegedly sheds miraculous tears.
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