The statue of the Little Mermaid, reclining on a granite rock on Copenhagen's seafront is now the city's most famous and most photographed tourist attraction. Made entirely in bronze by the sculptor, Edward Eriksen, in 1913, it pays tribute to the most famous writer of modern fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, who died here in 1875.
The statue portrays the Little Mermaid after its tail was transformed into legs, according to the famous fairy tale, while its melancholy gaze turns towards the beach.
It is 165 cm high and weighs 175 Kg (measurements that do justice to its size, if it had not been placed on a rock right in the middle of the sea that disappoints many visitors!) .
The Little Mermaid has had a rough life: for over thirty years it was the victim of defacing and acts of vandalism (covered with paint, beheaded, deprived of its right arm, etc.);
But the lovely sculpture is still there, uncontested symbol of the city and 2003 is the year of its ninetieth birthday!).
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