The Bombardment of 1807
Four days of rockets
Three hundred Congreve rockets went into a civilian city over four days in September 1807. About 195 civilians were killed and 768 injured, and more than a thousand buildings burned. This is the episode that Danish memory keeps longest, and it is worth stating without decoration: a European navy shelled the centre of a capital to take its fleet.
The cathedral
British gunners used the tower of the Church of Our Lady, Vor Frue Kirke, to range their fire. They set the tower alight and the cathedral burned to the ground. It was rebuilt by C.F. Hansen, the architect of the courthouse on Nytorv; the cornerstone went down in 1817 and the new building was consecrated on 7 June 1829. The Round Tower murder mystery route passes Vor Frue Kirke, which is on the Round Tower hunt page.
What else went
Twenty years of Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin's scholarship on Beowulf was destroyed in the bombardment. The courthouse on Nytorv, already under construction since 1803, was held up by the shelling and not finished until 1815. A city that had burned in 1728 and again in 1795 was now burned a third time by somebody else.
The guided ghost walk starts on Nytorv in front of that courthouse. See the guided ghost walk, or the haunted places page for the buildings that came through it.
Frequently asked questions
How many people died in the bombardment of Copenhagen?
About 195 civilians were killed and 768 injured between 2 and 5 September 1807, and more than a thousand buildings burned.
Did the British burn Copenhagen Cathedral?
Yes. British gunners used the tower of the Church of Our Lady for range practice, set it alight and burned the cathedral down. It was reconsecrated on 7 June 1829.
What were Congreve rockets?
The incendiary rockets used against the city; 300 of them were fired. The fires they started are covered alongside the fire of 1728.