Frederikskirken i København 1765

Jonas Haas created this print of Frederikskirken in Copenhagen sometime in the mid-18th century. Haas shows us the church as a monument in the city. But how does its imposing scale, which borrows so much from classical architecture, function as a social space? Note the figures in the foreground. They suggest that the area around the church has become something of a public square. We see people strolling, children playing, and a horse-drawn carriage. Here, Haas represents the church not just as a religious institution but also as a feature of the urban landscape. The city’s elite would certainly have been part of the church’s congregation. It seems as though Haas is at pains to show us the way in which such institutions inevitably become part of the social fabric. To understand this print more fully, we can ask: what other kinds of institutions existed at this time? What was their relationship with the urban population? The historian’s job is to investigate these contexts.