The Round Tower was built by Christian IV between 1637 and 1642. It was the first part of the Trinitatis Complex, which combined church, library and observatory in a single building.
What is unique about The Round Tower is that it doesn’t have any elevators. Therefore when visiting we had to climb the winding, white-washed Spiral Walk with niches along the way to the top. The spiral walk is unique in European architecture. The 209 m long spiral ramp winds itself 7.5 times round the hollow core of the tower, forming the only connection between the individual parts of the building complex.
There is a niche at the end of the Spiral Walk where visitors are able to stand on a glass floor and look 25 m down to the bottom of the hole. When you step onto the glass plate in the hollow core of the Round Tower, your feet straddle Denmark’s point zero. This point was used as the point zero when Denmark was triangulated in the 1760s by astronomer Thomas Bugge who was commissioned to survey Denmark and to draw a newer more accurate map of he kingdom.
The King appointed a number of surveyors, who spent the summer taking measurements and the winter in training in the Round Tower, where the University of Copenhagen’s astronomers measured both the Earth and the universe.
The surveyors’ measurements formed the basis for the first accurate map of Denmark, which was published in 1841.
Whilst climbing the Spiral Walk one of the niches toward the top leads to the Bell Loft of the Church of the Trinity and below is the gallery and concert venue. The loft has been used for a variety of activities such as drying laundry, storing tanned hides, dried herbs, painted theater sets, feathers and hate of society ladies. Visible in the loft are the original timbres that survived the ‘Great Fire’ of 1728 and many other objects who’s stories relate to the history of the Round Tower and the church.
Jessica Taylor-Tibbott 