A Leda and the Swan statue, depicting the classical myth of Leda and the Swan, was from 1611 to 1795 a major landmark in Copenhagen, Denmark. The statue topped a tall column located just off the entrance to the naval Arsenal Harbour.
The monument was built on an artificial islet with walled sides, on a shallow-watered sandbar known as the Mermaid Bar due to a particularly high frequency of reported mermaid sightings, just outside the entrance to a new naval harbour, the Arsenal Harbour which was completed about the same time.[2]
In 1795, the monument was removed when increasing ship traffic in the harbour made it necessary to dig out the area which, by then, was only one metre deep.[1]
The fate of the statue is uncertain. Some reports state that shortly before 1900 it was to be found on a garden lot at Frederiksberg Allé.[1]