Completed in 1883, golden-domed, granite-and-brick Alexander Newsky Kirke flaunts a Russian Byzantine style, complete with marble staircase, mosaic floors and Byzantine-style frescoes. This Byzantine influence is not surprising given that its Russian designer, David Ivanovich Grimm, was a respected Neo-Byzantine architect. The church's bronze chandelier was a gift from Tsar Alexander III, who commissioned the church.
Alexander III had married the daughter of Danish King Christian IX, Princess Dagmar. A convert to the Russian Orthodox Church, Dagmar (who would later become the Empress of Russia) had expressed a desire for a proper Orthodox church in which to worship on her trips to Copenhagen. Her husband obliged, buying a small plot of land on Bredgade for the church's construction.
