Elefantporten (Elephant Gate and Tower), Carlsberg Byen

Granite Giants at the Heart of Carlsberg

Completed in 1901 as part of the Ny Carlsberg brewery complex, Elefantporten — also known as the Elephant Tower — forms one of the most recognisable entrances to Carlsberg Byen. Four massive granite elephants stand in pairs on either side of the roadway, their broad backs and raised trunks supporting a compact tower above. The stone comes from quarries on Bornholm, adding a quietly Nordic note to what is otherwise a surprisingly playful structure. The gateway once served as the main entrance from the Valby side of the brewery, signaling that you were passing into Carlsberg’s industrial world. Today the surrounding area has transformed into a mixed urban district of housing, offices and cafés, but the elephants still mark the symbolic threshold between old brewery grounds and the new city quarter built around them.

From Water Tower to Urban Icon

Behind the sculptural drama lies a practical purpose: the tower was originally built as a water tower serving the brewery and later converted into a grain silo as production needs changed. This dual life as both industrial infrastructure and exuberant artwork captures the spirit of Carlsberg at the turn of the 20th century, when engineering, architecture and branding were tightly intertwined. Look up and you notice how modest the tower’s footprint actually is, with a relatively small floor area perched on these monumental animals. The façades show rich brickwork and ornamental details characteristic of Danish historicist architecture, yet the compact scale keeps the composition almost playful, as if a child’s fantasy of a castle had been realized in full-size brick and stone.

Carl Jacobsen’s Roman Inspiration and Family Symbols

The concept for Elefantporten came from brewer and art patron Carl Jacobsen after a visit to Rome. There he encountered Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s famous sculpture of an elephant carrying an obelisk on its back at Piazza della Minerva. Fascinated by the combination of strength and whimsy, Jacobsen brought the idea home and commissioned a gateway where not one but four elephants would shoulder a tower instead of an obelisk. The elephants themselves were designed by architect Vilhelm Dahlerup and modeled by sculptor H.P. Pedersen-Dan before being carved in granite. Each animal carries symbolic meaning: collectively they represent Jacobsen’s four surviving children, a personal layer of storytelling embedded in the brewery’s architecture. Two elephants are depicted with balls, a playful nod often interpreted as children at play heading towards nearby parkland, while the others face toward the city, hinting at urban life and opportunity.

Mottos, Motifs and Subtle Controversies

Inscribed on the tower is the Latin motto "Laboremus pro patria" – "Let us work for the fatherland" – a phrase Jacobsen used in several of his architectural commissions. It speaks to an era when industrial success and national pride were closely linked, and when Carlsberg’s expansion was seen as part of Denmark’s modernisation. The combination of public slogan and private symbolism turns the gateway into a stone manifesto for the brewery’s ambitions and values. If you examine the bases and ornamentation closely, you may spot motifs that reflect the design language of the time, including forms that would later become politically charged in the 20th century. Here they belong to a pre-war decorative vocabulary rather than any later ideology, a reminder that symbols can shift meaning over time while the stone itself quietly endures.

A Photogenic Landmark in a Changing District

Today Elefantporten stands within a redeveloped urban quarter where former malt silos, brewhouses and warehouses have been converted into homes, studios and cultural venues. The elephants remain one of the most photographed sights in the area, often framed against red-brick brewery buildings, steel malt tanks and new residential towers. Traffic still passes between the paired elephants, but pedestrian life has claimed much of the surrounding space. Visitors linger beneath the arches to admire the craftsmanship, trace the carved skin folds with their eyes and capture the contrast between heavy granite and the light, often windy Copenhagen sky. In the evenings, gentle lighting emphasizes the contours of the animals and the tower above, keeping Carlsberg’s granite guardians watchful long after the old brewing whistles fell silent.