The Little Mermaid

At Langelinie promenade, a bronze girl has been sitting on a rock since 1913, staring across Copenhagen's harbor toward something she will never reach. Andersen's original 1837 fairy tale is darker than any adaptation suggests: the mermaid's every step on land feels like walking on knives, the prince marries someone else, and instead of a kiss she is offered a choice between murder and dissolution into sea foam. The story belongs to Copenhagen the way gargoyles belong to Notre-Dame — embedded in the city's identity, impossible to separate from the skyline.