A fascination with outer space and all-things-astronomy is everywhere. The universality of the stars, across the globe and throughout history, is fun to experience as we travel here and there. We are by no means extensive travelers (wishful thinking on Jonathan’s part), but since we have a connection to the space exploration industry, we enjoy finding the space stuff wherever we go.

One pretty cool space find on our recent trip to Denmark was a historic observatory built by Christian IV, the Rundetaarn.

Connected to the Trinitatus Church, and also housing a library, the top of the tower offers great views of the city, in addition to the stars. Actually, the observatory became fairly obsolete in the early 19th century as the vibration of traffic as well as light pollution from the growing city made the scientific observations inaccurate. We did enjoy seeing the displays of the sun, moon and stars featured around the telescope at the top of the tower.

The views of the city were amazing too! Copenhagen has so many beautiful spires rising above the other buildings and from up high on the Rundetaarn they were spectacular!

But the best part by far was the unique architectural feature. It’s called the Rundetaarn, or Round Tower in English because of the 7.5 turn helix. Yep, instead of flights of stairs, the tower is a huge winding ramp to the top. Originally built to enable a horse-drawn cart to carry books to and from the library located just beneath the observatory, now it’s a fun way for a wiggly boy to burn some energy!

You never know what gems of space exploration history (and architecture!) you’ll find exploring the world!