Gefionspringvandet, Copenhagen

The Gefion Fountain is a harbour-front monument of stone and flowing water, showing the Norse goddess Gefjon driving oxen as they haul a plough. It stands beside Kastellet in the Nordre Toldbod area, near Langelinie. Danish artist Anders Bundgaard created the sculpted figures from 1897 to 1899, while the basins and decorative work were finished in 1908.

The fountain began operating on July 14, 1908, after being given to Copenhagen by the Carlsberg Foundation for the brewery’s fiftieth anniversary. Its scene comes from a Norse legend about how Zealand was formed: Gefjon was promised as much land as she could plough overnight, so she transformed her four sons into oxen and carved a vast piece of earth from the sea. The force of that story is made visible here in the animals’ strain and the water breaking around the plough.