Copenhagen City Hall is the red-brick building with the tall, slender clock tower on City Hall Square, the Rådhuspladsen. Martin Nyrop designed it in Danish National Romantic style, taking ideas from the town hall of Siena, and it opened in 1905. Inside, besides the council chamber and the wedding hall, it keeps one of the most complex mechanical clocks ever built.
Copenhagen City Hall at a glance
- Where: on City Hall Square (Rådhuspladsen) in central Copenhagen, at the end of the Strøget pedestrian street and across the boulevard from Tivoli.
- Built: 1892–1905; inaugurated on 12 September 1905.
- By: architect Martin Nyrop, who won the design competition.
- What it is today: the seat of the City Council and the Lord Mayor's office; the main hall is open to visitors on weekdays, with guided tours of the building and the tower.
- Time needed: 30 minutes for the hall and the World Clock, about an hour with a tower tour.
The sixth city hall
The present building is Copenhagen's sixth city hall. Its predecessors stood around Gammeltorv and Nytorv, a short walk north-east: two of them burned down, in the great fires of 1728 and 1795, and the fifth, a Neoclassical building by C.F. Hansen finished in 1815, still stands on Nytorv as the city court. By the late 19th century the growing city needed something bigger, and it chose a new site where the old ramparts had been levelled.
Nyrop's design mixes medieval Danish and north Italian ideas: a heavy brick front with a crenellated top, a gilded statue of Bishop Absalon, founder of Copenhagen, above the balcony, and a 105.6-metre tower, one of the tallest structures in the old centre. Behind the front, two long wings frame a covered main hall and an open garden. In 1955 Jens Olsen's World Clock was started here, and in 2024 the tower received a full renovation, including regilded clock faces and glazed viewing balconies.
What to look for
- The gilded statue of Absalon above the balcony, under the city's coat of arms.
- The tower clock: its bells chime at noon every day, and the sound is broadcast on Danish radio at midday and at midnight on New Year's Eve.
- Inside, the grand covered main hall with its galleries, brickwork and decorated woodwork.
- Jens Olsen's World Clock, in its own room: started on 15 December 1955, it has 15,448 parts, and its slowest gear turns once every 25,753 years.
- Outside on the square, the column with two bronze Lur Blowers and the Dragon Fountain, both part of the city hall scene.
Jens Olsen's World Clock
Jens Olsen was a Danish clockmaker and locksmith who spent decades planning an astronomical clock that would show not only the time but also the positions of the planets, the dates of moveable holidays, and the times of sunrise and sunset. He died in 1945 before it was finished; others completed it, and it was set in motion in 1955. It is still one of the most accurate mechanical clocks in the world. Stand in front of it and look for the dial that tracks the precession of the Earth's axis: that is the one with the 25,753-year gear.
Tips for your visit
- Come on a weekday: the main hall and the World Clock are usually open, while weekends are often reserved for weddings and events.
- Book a tower tour if you can; from the top balconies you look over Tivoli and the copper roofs of the old town.
- Be on the square at noon to hear the bells, then step inside to see the hall.
- Weddings take place here most days, so keep your voice down near the wedding hall.
Nearby
- Tivoli Gardens: the historic amusement park, directly across H.C. Andersens Boulevard.
- Strøget: Copenhagen's long pedestrian shopping street, which starts at the square.
- Copenhagen Cathedral (Vor Frue Kirke): the Neoclassical cathedral with Thorvaldsen's statues of Christ and the apostles, about ten minutes' walk north.
- Round Tower: the 17th-century observatory tower with a spiral ramp instead of stairs, a short walk further north.
See Copenhagen with World City Trail
Our Copenhagen scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around 3 hours, with about 48 minutes of walking. City Hall is one of the stops, together with Copenhagen Cathedral and the Round Tower.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Copenhagen.
Play the Copenhagen scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Copenhagen →
Play the outdoor escape game in Copenhagen →
Facts checked in October 2026.