London

The London Wall was originally built by the Romans in the late 2nd century in order to defend the city of Londinium against attackers. It fell into disrepair during the Saxon period but was rebuilt and refortified during the middle ages. The gates were later maintained for the purpose of levying taxes on goods coming into the city and the wall was only fully demolished in the 18th century. Many parts of the wall were incorporated into new buildings over the years. The wall ran a C-shaped course around the city starting in the west at Blackfriars and ending at the Tower.  

The most substantial wall remnant is at Tower hill, next to the Tower of London. There stands a replica of a Roman statue, thought to represent Emperor Trajan. You will also find here a replica of a tombstone that was found embedded in the wall, dedicated to Julius Classicianus, a Roman Provincial procurator.

The plaque on this site reads:

This impressive section of the wall still stands to a height of 10,6m. the Roman work survives to the level of the sentry walk, 4,4m high, with medieval stonework above. The wall was constructed with coursed blocks of ragstone with sandwiched rubble and mortar core. Layers of flat red tiles were used at intervals to give extra strength and stability. Complete with its battlements the Roman Wall would have been about 6,3 meters high. Outside the wall was a defensive ditch.

To the north is one of the towers added to the outside of the wall in the 4th century. In the mediavel period the defences were repaired and heightened. The stonework was more irregular with a sentry walk only 0,9m wide. To the west was the site of the Tower Hill scaffold where many famous prisoners were publicly beheaded, the last in 1747.

The pub The Black Friar, on the corner of Queen Victoria Street and New Bridge Street, was redesigned to its present look around 1905 by H. Fuller Clark in a combination of Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts.

Blackfriars Station is just across the road. Originally, the train station was opened under the name St Pauls in 1886. It was renamed in 1937 and rebuilt in the 1970s

The name Newgate is mainly associated with a prison. The first was built in 1188, subsequently enlarged, and then rebuilt after the fire of 1666. Work on a new prison was started in 1770 to a design by George Dance the Younger. Construction was disrupted by riots in 1780 but the building was completed two years later. It was demolished in 1904 to make space for the Central Criminal Courts, known as Old Bailey.

The Old Bailey was designed by Edward William Mountford and completed in 1907. The Lady Justice on top of the dome was executed by the sculptor Frederick William Pomeroy. 

Across the street: 16 Old Bailey (Britannia House) was built as offices for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1912 to designs by Arthur Usher. 15 Old Bailey was built in 1874 as the Imperial Hotel by architect Evans Cronk.  

St. Sepulchre without Newgate was originally a Saxon church dedicated to St. Edmund. The church became known as St. Edmund and the Holy Sepulchre during the years 1103 to 1173, when it was in the care of Augustinian canons, who were knights of the Holy Sepulchre. Later, the name became abbreviated to “St Sepulchre”. Rebuilt and much enlarged in 1450, the wall, tower and porch has survived from that period. Badly damaged in the Great Fire of 1666, the interior was restored in 1670 and has been much altered since.

There is no way to trace the wall exactly here, so we we wander down Newgate Street and turn at St, Martins Le-Grand towards Aldersgate. Just off Newgate street we find the Cutlers Hall, originally built as the Royal College of Physicians in 1888 by architect T. Tayler Smith. The terracotta frieze was executed by sculptor Benjamin Creswick.

At the corner of St Martin's Le-Grand and Gresham Street: the modern building in the back (25 Gresham Street) was built in 2002 by Nicholas Grimshaw and partners.  

Some more wall remnants and a guy sleeping. 88 Wood Street (left) was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and was built in 1993-2001. 

The Barbican estate was built in the 1960s and 1970s by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. The word Barbican is derived from the Latin Barbecana, meaning fortified outpost or gateway. 

Within the estate we also find this church, St. Giles without Cripplegate. A church has stood on this site since Saxon times. The present church, which dates from 1090 was extended in 1340, and restored after fires in 1545 and 1897, and again after bombing in 1940. St Giles, by a strange coincidence, is a saint for cripples, although Cripplegate supposedly has no reference to cripples.

Moorgate was added to the list of gates in medieval times. It has no church but there is a square with three Georgian terraces from the early 19th-century. The stuccoed fronts are from the 1870s.  Moorhouse was designed by Norman Foster and was completed in 2004.

The construction of the new Broadgate tower can be seen towards the north. The tower was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

St Botolph without Bishopsgate is the church at the next gate. The church survived the fire of 1666 but fell into disrepair. The present church was first consecrated in 1728 according to a design by George Dance the elder. It suffered severe structural damage after the IRA terrorist bombings in 1992 and 1993. The highrise in the background is 99 Bishopsgate, reclad as result of bomb damage. It was originally built in 1976.  

Last gate on our tour is Aldgate. The church here is also dedicated to St. Botolph, and is called St Botolph without Aldgate. It also survived the Great Fire but fell into disrepair and had to be rebuilt, which was done to designs by George Dance the elder.

The scale and style of the City has changed so much over time that the few Georgian remnants stand out. 43 Eastcheap is a Grade II listed 18th-century house with an early 19th-century shop front, but the red-brick neighbour is a replica from 1966.

Gresham street was created in 1881-95 by widening and joining Cateaton street, Maiden lane, St. Anne's lane and Lad lane. The building on the left is Gresham College, completed in 1912 to a design by architects Watney and Perks.

Brussels

The Brussels Town Hall was originally built in 1402-20 with only a small belfry. A second wing was added in 1444-49 and the tower was completed by 1455. The architect behind the first project was Jacob van Thienen or Jean Bornoy, followed by Willem de Voghel (probably) and Jan van Ruysbroek. The various building stages is the likely reason why the facade is asymmetrical. The interior was completely rebuilt after the French bombardment in 1695 and two new wings at the back were added by architect Corneille van Nerven, completed in 1712.  

The construction of the church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon spans the entire 15th century, replacing a guild chapel from around 1304. The choir was completed in 1435 while the transepts were nearing completion in the 1450s. The construction of the nave was interrupted by the political unrest following the death of the duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, in 1477. Works resumed at the end of the century but the planned tower was never completed. Two baroque chapels were added in the 17th century.  

Construction of what was to become the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula started already in 1226 but was only completed in the 16th century. The oldest part is the choir, which was built in 1226-76, while the design of the towers on the western front is attributed to the architect Jan van Ruysbroeck. The gothic church replaced a previous church from the 11th century and a chapel has probably existed on the site since the 9th century. The church became co-cathedral of the archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels in 1962. The other cathedral of the archdiocese is St Rumbold's in Mechelen.

Rue du Marché aux Fromages is one of the oldest streets in Brussels and supposedly has its smallest house. Apart from being named after its cheese market, the street has had other colourful names such as whole-milk street, dirty street or shit street. It was also previously known as Smaelbeek, after a stream that used to run along it, forming a small island on the south side of the street. It is also often referred to as rue de Pittas. The sale of cheese here ended in the 18th century. 

The renaissance facade of the late-gothic church of Sainte Marie-Madeleine originally belonged to a separate chapel from 1615, dedicated to Sainte Anne, previously situated at Rue de la Montagne. It was reconstructed and stuck onto the 15th century church in 1957-58 after it had been removed due to the construction of the north-south railway link. The gothic part of the church was partly destroyed in the French bombardment of 1695 and some of the interior was then rebuilt in baroque.

Until the end of the 19th century, Rue de Rollebeek was the only street connecting the Sablons quarter to the lower town. The Zavelbeek, also called Rollebeek, was a brook running from Sablons down to town where it emptied into the Senne river. The brook had been channeled by the beginning of the 14th century to feed the fountains close to Grande Place. At 7 Rue de Rollebeek, we find a renaissance portal from the 1630s.

The facade of the current Church of the Holy Trinity in the Ixelles district, originally belonged to the Temple of the Augustinians on Place de Broukere. The church was built in 1621-42 by the architect Jacob Franquart. It was spared destruction when the Senne river was covered up in 1865-71 and was originally intended to be one of the focal points of the new boulevards. However, the church was demolished in 1893 and the facade was transferred to Ixelles. The main body of the new church was built in 1895-1907 by architects Van Ysendijck and Simons. The buildings in the street leading up the church, Rue du Bailli, were mostly built in 1889-1901.  

Most of Grande Place was destroyed during a French bombardment of the city in 1695, only the town hall and Maison du Roi were in a sufficient condition to be repaired. All the other houses on the square are a result of a rebuilding campaign in 1695-1710. The design of the new houses were subject to approval by local authorities, helping to ensure a relative uniformity in style. After a long period of disrepair and alterations, the facades were restored around the end of the nineteenth century. The building on the farthest right in this row was demolished in 1852 in order to widen the road, but was rebuilt in 1897 with an arch at ground floor, as an annex to the adjacent house.     

The east side of the square is dominated by the Maison des Ducs de Brabant, which despite the unified facade is made up of seven separate residences. Several of the houses that stood on the site before the bombardment were owned by the city of Brussels and the cleared site was sold into private hands to finance the reconstruction of the town hall. The involvement of local authorities may be an explanation for why the individual houses were subordinate to a single design, by the architect Guillaume de Bruyn. The central pediment was replaced with a new design by Laurent-Benoit Dewez in 1770. The house to the left of Maison des des Ducs de Brabant is known as Maison de la Balance, and was built in 1704, but its address is to Rue de la Colline and not the square.

On the north-east, the third facade from the left is also by de Bruyn and was intended as the central section of a unified design for the row, but this was refused by the other owners. The second facade from the right is made up of two separate residences. On the far left is the Maison du Roi.     

There are more houses on the northwest and west sides of the square. In between is the Maison du Roi, the second of the two gothic structures to survive the bombardment of 1695. It was built for the Duke of Brabant in 1504-36, supposedly as a reminder of ducal authority to the municipal authorities in the town hall.

The church of Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg was built in 1776-86 as the centrepiece of the new Place Royale designed by the French architect Barnabé Guimard. The square was laid out after the fire of 1731, which had destroyed the former palace of Coudenberg. The church was completed to the designs of Jean Benoît Vincent Barré. 

Palais de la Nation was built in 1779-84 to serve as the seat for the Sovereign Council of Brabant, and was completed to an exterior design by the French architect Barnabé Guimard. The building was restored after fires in 1820 and 1883, was enlarged in the 1870s and is now at the centre of a whole city block owned by the Belgian authorities. It has been the seat of the federal parliament of Belgium since 1831. The iron railing in front of the palace was put up in 1921.  

The Brussels Stock Exchange was designed by Léon-Pierre Suys and built in 1868-73, as the centrepiece of a redevelopment plan resulting from the decision to cover and divert the Senne River. The plan, also developed by Suys, was adopted in 1865 and led to the creation of Central Boulevard (now Boulevard Anspach) and a new 19th century district in the heart of the medieval city. Suys also designed the Great Central Halls, built to replace the old open-air markets, but this structure was demolished in 1958.

Just on the right can be seen a glimpse of St. Nicholas Church. Originally built around 1125, it's one of the oldest churches in Brussels, though most of the structure has been renewed throughout the centuries and the facade is a reconstruction from 1956. 

The vast Palace of Justice was built in 1866-1883 to a design by Joseph Poelaert. A neo-classical building for the law courts had been built in 1818-23 on the site of the old Jesuit church and was designed by Francois Verly, but this building soon became too small and dilapidated and was demolished in 1892 to make way for a new street called Rue Lebeau. The square, still called Place de la Justice, is now dominated by the Royal Library of Belgium from 1956-58. As for Poelaert's new building, the grounds of a convent, the park of nearby Hotel de Merode and a large chunk of the Marolles district were expropriated to make way for it.

Rue de la Regence was created in two stages as a continuation of the late 18th century plans to modernise the royal quarter, as exemplified by the creation of Place Royale. The first stretch from Place Royale to Sablon was created in 1827 and led to the demolition of a monument known as passage des Colonnes. The new street spanned Rue de Ruysbroeck via a small iron bridge. The street was lengthened to Place de Poelaert in 1872, making the new Palace of Justice the terminal focal point. The hotel Tour et Taxis was demolished in the process, as were the iron bridge and some of the houses surrounding the church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon. The stretch from 1827 and Square du Petit Sablon were also modernised as part of these works.          

The church of Saint-Josse at the end of Rue des deux églises seen from Rue de la Loi. The facade was designed in 1891 completing a project for a new church which had begun in 1864. Among the neo-styles of the time, the architect Jules-Jacques van Ysendijck made a somewhat unusual choice in opting for Jesuit baroque.      

Hotel Tassel by architect Victor Horta was built in 1893-94 and is considered the first in the Art Nouveau style, although it was preceded by Maison Autrique in 1893. The latter was also very innovative in its decorative style but its spatial composition was conventional compared to Tassel, sources say. The town house features a steel structure at its core containing staircases and landings and has a glass roof bringing light into the middle of the structure. 

Rue Joseph Stevens, which opens up the vista from Place du Grand Sablon to the church Notre Dame de la Chapelle, was created in 1894. The building in red brick was completed in 1895 by the architect  Charles Albert. The white brick building on the other corner is presumably from the same period, while this is likely also true for the building on the far right, which belongs to Rue Joseph Lebeau, which was created in 1893. Both streets were cut through the old urban fabric to improve the connection between Sablon and the lower town. Previously, the only street down to lower town from here was Rue de Rollebeek situated between the two newer streets. An example of the older architecture in the area is the gabled front of 49 Place du Grand Sablon with an anchor plate on the facade indicating it was built in 1567. The high-rise Tour Sablon was built in 1968 and replaced, among other buildings, Victor Horta's Maison du Peuple from 1899. 

Rue Joseph Stevens ends at Place de la Chapelle, named after Notre Dame de la Chapelle,  primarily built in the 13th century though the nave was completed in the 14th. Burned, sacked and bombarded throughout the centuries, the church was restored in 1699-1708 and the baroque steeple was designed by Antoine Pastorana. It was restored again in 1866 and in 1989. On the right is the high-rise Tour Sablon.

Rue de Tabellion in Ixelles was created in 1897 by royal decree and the first buildings started to emerge around 1900 in various neo-classical and neo-renaissance styles. Ixelles municipality is located to the south of Brussels city centre and was urbanised in the second half of the 19th century after the creation of Avenue Louise, which despite resistance from the the then town of Ixelles became a main artery connecting the emerging southern suburbs to the city. A transept of the Church of the Holy Trinity serves as the focal point for the end of the street.  

The Maison & Atelier Horta was built in 1898-1901 as the residence of the art nouveau architect Victor Horta. The building was sold in 1919 and separated into two separate households in 1926. It was acquired by the municipality of St Gilles in 1961 and is now a museum.

The northern end of Rue Ducale is dominated by a series of government buildings. The building on the left has been the Prime Minister's offices since 1938 but was originally built in 1782-84 for the monastery of St Gertrude of Louvain. The original design was by Louis Montoyer but the facade was entirely redone in 1860-62 when the structure was rebuilt to house ministries. The red brick building was built for the ministry of railways, the main post- and telegraph office and the navy; by architect Hendrik Beyaert in 1890-94. Beyaert was also tasked with designing the building at the end of the street to house new offices for the post office and the navy but this was completed to an altered design by his successor Joseph Benoit in 1905. It has been the seat of the Flemish parliament since 1987.

The Old England Department store was built to a design by Paul Saintenoy in 1899, along a new artery through the demolished quarter of St Roch, named Le Coudenberg. The new street has also been called rue Courbe and joins with what is now Rue Ravenstein to connect Place Royale to the old town. Coudenberg means cold hill and is the name of the hill-top, chosen as the site for the palace of the dukes of Brabant in the second half of the 11th century. Old England has housed the Music Instrument Museum since 2000.   

The new facade of the Royal Palace of Brussels was completed in 1904 to a design by the architect Henri Maquet. However, the palace originates from two mansions built at the end of the 18th century on the ruins of the old Coudenberg palace. The mansions were joined into one palatial front under William I of the Netherlands in 1815-29, but the facade was judged as too modest by the later Belgian king Leopold II and was replaced with the current.

A triumphal arch in what was to become the Parc du Quinquantenaire had been planned but wasn't fully completed for the 1880 National Exhibition, commemorating 50 years of Belgian independence.  Instead, a makeshift version made out of wooden panels was put up and it wasn't before the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence in 1905 that a permanent arch was completed, to a new design by Charles Girault. The arch links exhibition spaces in glass and iron originally built for the 1880 exhibition, which have subsequently been enlarged and modified.

The park Mont des Arts, which opens up the vista from Place Royale towards Grande Place, was created in the 1950s, but the plan originated already in the 19th century. The old quarter of St Roch was demolished in 1897-98, but the plan to redevelop the area was rejected in 1908. Instead, a temporary solution was found in 1910 with the creation of a park with a staircase and cascading fountain. The park proved popular and remained until 1954. More buildings in the area were demolished to make way for new structures, including the Royal Library of Belgium and Congress Palace in 1956-58.

Copenhagen

Rosenborg castle was initially built in 1606-15 as a two-storey house and royal retreat. It was further extended in the period up to 1624 and completed to its current appearance circa 1634. The architecture has been attributed to Hans van Steenwinckel the younger or Bertel Lange.

Amagertorv 6 is one of the few remaining renaissance houses in Copenhagen, having survived both the great fire of 1728 and 1795. The house was constructed for the later mayor Mathias Hansen in red brick with sandstone ornaments. It was restored in 1898 for the insurance company Hafnia, which resulted in the insertion of large windows on the ground floor. The houses to either side are from the 18th century, with significant 19th century redesigns to the two facades on the far left.  

The gabled brick building on Strandgade is one of the oldest houses in Christianshavn and was built already in 1622. The facade was previously plastered but the house was restored to a more original look after 1943. The building on the left was built around 1635 and a third house, out of view in this picture, is from about 1622-24. The red house on the right has a facade from 1769 but was redeveloped from two previous houses from 1626. 

The stock exchange was built in 1619-25 by Lorenz Steenwinckel and Hans Steenwinckel the Younger. The tower was designed by Ludvig Heidritter and replaced with a copy in 1775-77. The spire was originally in lead while the current is clad in copper. 

The church of Holmen was originally an anchor forge designed by Peter de Dunker in a style that reflected the prominent location rather than its use. The building was converted to a naval church in 1617-20. It was expanded and rebuilt in 1641-43 by Leonhard Blasius with new transept wings and increased height to the level of the previous tower. A gate taken from the cathedral in Roskilde was added in 1872.

  

The headquarters of the Danish National Archives was completed in 1673 by the architects Albert Mathisen and Thomas Rasmussen Walgensteen. It housed the royal library until 1906, the collection was opened to the public for the first time in 1793.

Charlottenborg was the first town mansion on Kongens Nytorv and was built in 1672-83 for Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve. The architect was probably Ewert Janssen to a design inspired by a proposal for the Amsterdam city hall, while the rear wing was designed by Lambert van Haven and added later. The name Charlottenborg was adopted after 1700 when the mansion was sold to the Queen Mother, Charlotte Amalie.   

The church of Our Saviour was built in 1682-95 as a replacement for the temporary structure inaugurated in 1639. It was to serve as the main church of  Christianshavn, a town founded by Christian IV and initially independent from Copenhagen. The architect was Lambert van Haven. The famous spire was only added in 1749-52 and was designed by Lauritz de Thurah.

Moltke's mansion was built in 1700-02 for Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve and was originally known as Gyldenløve's little mansion, in reference to his previous larger residence in Kongens Nytorv which he had sold in 1700. The architect was Ernst Brandenburger. It was one of the first buildings in what would become Frederiksstaden and replaced a house built in the 1680's. The sandstone decorations were added in 1716-23 by Johan Cornelius Krieger.  An extension was made along Dronningens Tværgade in 1878-80, including a heavily decorated baroque portal, by architect Theodor Zeltner. The mansion had by then passed to the Moltke family in 1842.

Magstræde has some of the oldest private houses in Copenhagen, having survived the fire of 1795. Most of the buildings are from the 1730s, as the city recovered after the fire of 1728. However, numbers 17 and 19 (first one on the right) survived both fires and are believed to be from the 1640's.

The building erected for the Asiatic Company, a successor to the Danish East India Company, in 1738 was designed by architect Philip de Lange. A second building was added in 1781 with an identical facade to the original in Strandgate. However, the facade on the waterfront is plain and only shares the mansard roof in common with the older building.

The Prince's Mansion was mainly completed in 1743-44 by Nicolai Eigtved as part of a rebuilding of a previous house from 1684. A redesign of the original house had already taken place in 1725 by the architect Johan Cornelius Krieger when it was first adopted as the residence of the Crown Prince. An extension was completed by Lauritz de Thurah in 1757. Further extensions were carried out in 1929-38 by architects Mogens Clemmensen and Arne Nystrøm, including the 38 granite columns fronting Stormgade, and in 1989-92. The mansion has housed the national museum since 1892.  

The Marble bridge and pavilions were designed by Nicolai Eigtved and completed in 1744, as part of first Christiansborg project. The overall design for the palace was by Elias David Hausser and mostly built in 1731-45. However, Hausser retired in 1742 and it was left to Eigtved to complete the works.  The total cost of construction is said to have been about half of the state's annual income. Yet, the palace only lasted until 1794 when it was destroyed in a fire. The only remaining parts of the palace are the pavilions and riding ground complex. The north wing of the complex was built before Eigtved took over in 1642, while the remainder is his work. The first Christiansborg palace replaced a previous medieval-renaissance structure known as Copenhagen Castle.  The current Christiansborg (1907-18) is clad in granite in contrast to the sandstone used for the riding ground complex and pavilions. 

Along the canal in Christianshavn (Overgaden Oven Vandet 16-26): Both blue houses have origins from the 17th century, while the rest were mostly built between 1730-50, except the taller yellow house completed around 1802.

Gammelstrand 48 was built in 1750-51 to a design by Philip de Lange. A third storey was added after the fire in 1795 and the top gable was added in 1930. The entrance portal in sandstone was executed by Andreas Gercken the younger in 1750.

Bernstorff's mansion was built in 1752-56 to a design by Johan Gottfried Rosenberg, who also designed the twin building across the street, known as the Dehn mansion. Some alterations were made to the house in 1892 by the architect Jørgen Hansen Koch.

Stanley's mansion was built in Christianshavn in 1755-56 for the sculptor and professor Simon Carl Stanley. Originally, only the central section had two floors but the side-wings were added to in 1783. Stanley was presumably himself the architect. 

The Odd Fellows mansion was built in 1751-57 for Christian August von Berckentin by the architect Johan Gottfried Rosenberg. Two new pavilions fronting Bredgade were built in 1880's and a concert hall was added to the back of the building, but the latter was destroyed by fire in 1992. Odd Fellows bought the mansion in 1901.

Christian's Church was built in in 1754-59 as a church for the German community in Christianshavn, an area founded specifically for merchants and which had attracted many German traders and craftsmen. The architect was Nicolai Eigtved, who died shortly after he submitted his designs, and the building was financed by lottery. It was originally called Frederik's German church but it was decided in 1901 to change the name to avoid confusion with Frederik's church in Frederiksstaden, after the German congregation was dissolved in 1886.

Amalienborg Palace was built as four separate mansions in 1750-60. The mansions were designed by Nicolai Eigtved, and completed by Lauritz de Thurah after Eigtved's death in 1754. The plots were originally given to aristocrats for free on the condition that they followed the overall design and built within a certain period of time. The royal family bought the mansions after the destruction of Christiansborg Palace in 1794. A colonnade was built between two of the mansions in 1794-95 by Caspar Frederik Harsdorff.

The Thott mansion was originally built in 1683-86 as the residence of the naval officer, Niels Juel,  to a design by Lambert von Haven. It was the second house to be built on Kongens Nytorv.  However, the current look stems from a redesign by the architect Nicolas-Henri Jardin in 1763-64. The mansion now houses the French embassy. The building on the left was completed in 1896 for the insurance company Standard by the architect Christian Arntzen. 

Harsdorff's mansion is actually three different houses built by the architect Caspar Frederik Harsdorff in 1779-80. The last of the three houses stands diagonally to the other two, breaking the symmetry, apparently due to the location of a former service building to Charlottenborg.  

Højbro Plads was created after the fire in 1795 and opened up the space between Amagertorv and Slotsholmen. Most of the houses in the new square was built in the period 1796-99. St Nicholas church, originally constructed in the 13th century and rebuilt around 1500, was mostly destroyed in 1795 but the tower, which was added in 1582-91, survived. It lost the spire from 1611, but a reconstructed version was added in 1909. The main body of the building, also a reconstruction, was completed in 1912. However, the building hasn't been used for church services since 1805.

The buildings in Ved Stranden were mostly built after the fire in 1795. The building on the left was probably designed by J. H. Rawert, the fourth floor being added in 1886, and used to be the location of Hotel Royal. The building with the columns is known as the Gustmeyer House and was designed by Johan Martin Quist in 1797. 

Erichsen's mansion was built in 1797-1801 by architect Caspar Frederik Harsdorff, who died before it was completed. It was restored and rebuilt in 1888-92 and again in 1928-30. It is one of the first houses in Denmark where classical columns are you used for the residence of a commoner.  

The construction of a second Christiansborg palace started in 1803 to replace the building destroyed in 1794. Only fragments remain as this structure also succumbed to flames in 1884. The remains can be seen on the ground floor of the north front facing Prince George's Yard. An entrance portal was also reused and now serves as the main entrance to the Supreme Court. The architect for the second Christiansborg palace was Christian Frederik Hansen and works were completed in 1828. On the right can be seen Thorvaldsen Museum, completed in a Greek-Egyptian inspired style by Micheael Gottlieb Bindesbøll in 1838-48. 

The courthouse building was completed in 1816 by architect Christian Frederik Hansen and served as the city hall until 1905. It replaced the previous city hall, which burned in the fire of 1795. Whereas the old building had stood at the junction between the squares of Gammeltorv and Nytorv, the new one was moved to the west corner of Nytorv. This was done to prevent the spread of fire and thus opened up the space between the two squares. The site of the new city hall was found on the spot where Vajsenhuset had previously stood.

The Palace Chapel was built in 1813-26 to a design by Christian Frederik Hansen. It replaced a previous chapel designed by Nicolai Eigtved, which was destroyed in the the palace fire of 1794. The rebuilt palace suffered another devastating fire in 1884 but the chapel survived. Fire damaged the chapel in 1992 but it was rebuilt faithfully to Hansen's original designs.

The buildings fronting Nybrogade are mostly from the first half of the 19th century, or given their current look in that period. The exception is the gabled houses on the right, built after the fire in 1728.  

The buildings on Søtorvet were constructed in 1873-75 by the Copenhagen Building Company to designs by architects Ferdinand Vilhelm Jensen and Vilhelm Petersen. The area used to be part of the city's fortifications but came available for development after the decommissioning in 1868. The Queen Louise Bridge was built in the 1880s connecting the inner city with the district of Nørrebro.

The Royal Danish Theatre was built in 1872-74 to designs by architects Vilhelm Dahlerup and Ove Petersen, after they had won a competition in 1871. It replaced a previous theatre-building by Caspar Frederik Harsdorff from 1774, which in turn replaced a theatre by Nicolai Eigtved from 1748. The dome on the right belongs to the department store Magasin du Nord, completed in 1893 by architect Albert Jensen, on the site of the previous Hotel du Nord.

Frederiksholm Kanal 4 was built in 1888 in renaissance style and was designed by architect Valdermar Ingemann. The building on the opposite side of street with a narrow facade to Nybrogade is from 1886. The little yellow house on the right is from sometime between 1728 and 1757, with the third storey added later in that century. 

The Marble Church or Frederik's Church, as its officially known, was built in 1877-94 by the architect Ferdinand Meldahl. The original project for a church on this location was begun in 1750 when Nicolai Eigtved made the first designs. The task was later given to Nicolas-Henri Jardin who submitted new plans, but construction slowed and came to a complete halt in 1770. Many architects submitted ideas for the completion of the church in the coming decades but things didn't start to move until the site was sold into private hands in 1874. The condition of the sale was for the new owner to complete the church but this was delayed by the need to demolish the existing half-structure. Meldahl was originally assistant to Christian Zwingmann but took over after the latter retired due to poor health in the mid-1870s. The buildings surrounding the church were designed by Meldahl and completed in 1886. However, the financier behind the project, Carl Frederik Tietgen, was unable to purchase the necessary plots in the southwest corner to complete the full lay-out. 

   

The former DFDS headquarters in Sankt Annæ Plads was built in 1891 by the architect Albert Jensen. DFDS was founded in 1866 by Carl Frederik Tietgen.

The National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst) was built in 1889-1896 by architects Vilhelm Dahlerup and Georg Møller on a site that was previously part of the city's fortification ring. The royal collection of paintings was originally housed in Christiansborg Palace but a new venue was needed after the palace fire in 1884. A modern extension of the museum-building was completed in 1998. 

In between the late 18th century houses on Højbro Plads, number 5 does convincing job of looking like it's from the 17th century, when in fact it was built in 1896-97 by architect Martin Borch. The facade is mostly intact with the exception of the ground floor.  On the left, Højbrohus (Østergade 61) was built in 1896 by architect Richard Bergmann.

Ny Carlsberg Glypotek was built completed in 1897 by the architect Vilhelm Dahlerup to house the personal sculpture collection of Carl Jacobsen. The collection had opened to the public in 1882 in a private building, but was moved to a new publicly financed museum after Jacobsen donated his collection in 1888. The original building was significantly enlarged in 1906 by the architect Hack Kampmann, and a third building was added in 1996. The building on the left was built for the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 1906 by architect Christian Laurits Thuren.

    

This building, originally the headquarters of Privatbanken, was built in 1901-04 by architect Axel Berg.  The bank was founded in 1857 and was part of a series of mergers, which eventually resulted in the creation on Nordea.

  

Copenhagen city hall was built in 1892-1905 to a design by Martin Nyrop. The location just to the west of the old city became available when the ring of fortifications at its perimeter was decommissioned in the second half of the 19th century. This picture is taken from Vester Voldgade, which used to be a narrow road between the city and the ramparts. Helmerhus (right), also known as the Utrecht building, was built on top of the removed ramparts in 1892-93 by architects Knud Arne Petersen and Henrik Hagemann. The location of the city hall also encouraged the modernisation of buildings on the existing city side, including many new hotels. The two white buildings on the left were opened as Hotel Hafnia (1899) and Hotel Kong Frederik (1898) respectively, by architects Phillip Smidth and Rogert Møller. Smidth also designed Politikens Hus in 1904-07 on the corner of Vestergade, which like most of the other buildings on this side of Rådhuspladsen is brick-faced and takes inspiration from the city hall. The space in between Hotel Kong Frederik and Politikens Hus was only modernised in 1934-37 by architects Emanuel Monberg and Axel Maar. 

Despite its 17th century appearance, Frederiksholms Kanal 6 was built in 1904 to a design by architect Axel Preisler. The yard in the back has a cannonball inserted into the masonry, probably originating from the Swedish assault on the city in 1659. 

The pilastered building on the corner of Højbro Plads and Gammelstrand was built for the fire insurance company Kgl. Brand in 1905-06. The architect was Fritz Koch followed by Gotfred Tvede who finished the work after Koch's death in 1905. The building on the right is from 1797.

Grønningen 1 was built in 1906-08 by the architect Henning Hansen as a block of flats. The insurance company Købstædernes forsikring, engraved on the facade, did not move in until 1944.

The Royal Danish Library was completed in 1906 to a design by architect Hans Jørgen Holm. The building includes a copy of Charlemagne's Palace chapel in the Aachen cathedral. The collection was previously housed in Fiolstræde.

Kultorvet was created after the fire in 1728. The large building on the right was built in 1908 by the architect Christian Hansen , while the corner building on the other side of Købmagergade is from 1906-07 by the architect Vilhelm Fischer.

The third Christiansborg Palace was constructed in 1907-18 to designs by architect Thorvald Jørgensen. Unlike the previous two palaces, the current building is faced with granite instead of sandstone, with the exception of the ground floor of one of the lateral courtyards where remnants of the second Christiansborg (1828-84) was reused. The building houses the Danish parliament, Supreme Court, the Prime Minister's Office and royal reception rooms.    

The extension to the Royal Danish Library, known as the black diamond, was built in 1995-99 by the architectural firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen. It was the first in a series of new cultural buildings on the city's waterfront. There are also two museums in the building as well an auditorium.

The Copenhagen Opera House was built in 2001-04 to a design by the architect Henning Larsen. The house was donated to the state by the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller foundation. At its location on Holmen island, it completes the Amalienborg-axis.

The Royal Danish Playhouse was completed in 2007, after a competition was won by architects Lundgaard and Tranberg in 2002. The new theatre includes three separate stages and supplements the existing venue of the Royal Theatre on Kongens Nytorv.