Stork Fountain
Encyclopedia
The Stork Fountain is located on Amagertorv
in central
Copenhagen
, Denmark
. It was a present to Crown Prince Frederik
(later Frederik VIII) and Crown Princess Louise in connection with their silver wedding in 1894. It depicts three storks about to set off.
Since 1950 it has been a tradition that newly graduated midwives dance around the fountain.
proposed a fountain depicting an Amager farmer sitting on a .
The competition was won by Edvard Petersen
and Vilhelm Bissen
. Another entry in the competition was Bindesbøll
's and Skovgaard's Dragon Fountain, which was later erected in the City Hall Square where it is now seen.
The fountain was inaugurated in 1894. During the late 1960s the fountain became a popular venue for members of the protest movements.
. The pedestal is decorated with reliefs of aquatic plants and in the basin there are frogs sitting on dock leaves
, spewing jets of water. On a shelf in the pedestal sit three large birds, each about to set off in its direction.
It has persistently been maintained that the birds depicted are in fact herons. In 2008 representatives from the Danish Ornithological Society stated that this is not true and that the birds are in fact storks.
and social media
, an online media researcher from the University of Copenhagen
created a Facebook
protest group against the demolition of the Stork Fountain. In a week it managed to attract 10,000 supporters and after two weeks it had 27,000 members. However the cause was purely fictitious; there was no threat of demolition and the fountain is in fact a listed
monument.
Amagertorv
Amagertorv , today part of the Strøget pedestrian zone, is often described as the most central square in central Copenhagen, Denmark...
in central
Indre By
Indre By , also known as Copenhagen Center or K or Downtown Copenhagen or City, is one of the 15 administrative, statistical, and tax city districts comprising the municipality of Copenhagen, Denmark...
Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. It was a present to Crown Prince Frederik
Frederick VIII of Denmark
Frederick VIII was King of Denmark from 1906 to 1912.-Early life:Frederick was born on 3 June 1843 in the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen as Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior male line of the House of Oldenburg descended from Christian III of Denmark and who had...
(later Frederik VIII) and Crown Princess Louise in connection with their silver wedding in 1894. It depicts three storks about to set off.
Since 1950 it has been a tradition that newly graduated midwives dance around the fountain.
History
In 1888, the Society for the Beautification of Copenhagen announced a competition for a fountain on the prominent square to celebrate the upcoming silver wedding of Crown Prince Frederik (VIII) and Crown Princess Louise on 28 July 1894. Peder Vilhelm Jensen-KlintPeder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint
Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint was a Danish architect, designer, painter and architectural theorist, best known for designing Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen, generally considered to be one of the most important Danish architectural works of the time...
proposed a fountain depicting an Amager farmer sitting on a .
The competition was won by Edvard Petersen
Edvard Petersen
Edvard Petersen was a Danish painter. He also designed the Stork Fountain on Amagertorv in Copenhagen-Biography:...
and Vilhelm Bissen
Vilhelm Bissen
Christian Gottlieb Vilhelm Bissen was a Danish sculptor, son of Herman Wilhelm Bissen. He is mainly known for a number of statues around Copenhagen, including the equestrian statue of Absalon on Højbro Plads and the Stork Fountain on the adjoining Amagertorv...
. Another entry in the competition was Bindesbøll
Thorvald Bindesbøll
Thorvald Bindesbøll was a Danish architect. He was one of Denmark's most important architects at the turn of the twentieth century....
's and Skovgaard's Dragon Fountain, which was later erected in the City Hall Square where it is now seen.
The fountain was inaugurated in 1894. During the late 1960s the fountain became a popular venue for members of the protest movements.
Design
The fountain consists of a nine-sided basin of stone. It collects water from the bronze bowl at the top and the three small cascades around the edges of the central pedestalPedestal
Pedestal is a term generally applied to the support of a statue or a vase....
. The pedestal is decorated with reliefs of aquatic plants and in the basin there are frogs sitting on dock leaves
Rumex
The docks and sorrels, genus Rumex L., are a genus of about 200 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbs in the buckwheat family Polygonaceae....
, spewing jets of water. On a shelf in the pedestal sit three large birds, each about to set off in its direction.
It has persistently been maintained that the birds depicted are in fact herons. In 2008 representatives from the Danish Ornithological Society stated that this is not true and that the birds are in fact storks.
Fictitious threat
In early 2009, as part of a classroom experiment on viral communicationViral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
and social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
, an online media researcher from the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
created a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
protest group against the demolition of the Stork Fountain. In a week it managed to attract 10,000 supporters and after two weeks it had 27,000 members. However the cause was purely fictitious; there was no threat of demolition and the fountain is in fact a listed
Architectural conservation
Architectural conservation describes the process through which the material, historical, and design integrity of mankind's built heritage are prolonged through carefully planned interventions. The individual engaged in this pursuit is known as an architectural conservator...
monument.