Absolutism and classicism
Under absolutism Copenhagen gained a new royal district, and in the early 19th century C.F. Hansen and Carl Ludvig Engel gave Copenhagen and Helsinki a classical face.
Nicolai Eigtved planned Frederiksstaden in Copenhagen with Amalienborg, four palaces around an octagonal square, built in the 1750s. After the city fire of 1795 and the bombardment of 1807 C.F. Hansen rebuilt the Church of Our Lady and the courthouse on Nytorv in a severe classicism.
When Helsinki became the capital of Finland in 1812, Carl Ludvig Engel designed the city’s new centre around the Senate Square. The cathedral he designed was completed in 1852, after his death.