Though church ruins were demolished, the sturdy tower survived and can be seen in the front hall of Nikolaj Kunsthal today.

Until the second half of the 1800, the surrounding area functioned as Copenhagen meatpacking district and became known as ‘Maven (The Stomach).’ The artist and inventor Robert Storm Petersen began his career as an apprentice working in his fathers butchers shop in ‘Maven.’ Butcher stalls occupied the area around the tower until the second half of the 1800s when they were closed.

[8] When the internationally notable Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen returned to Copenhagen in 1838 after living and working for 40 years in Rome, a flag was hoisted on the tower when his ship approached to alert residents of his arrival.

[9] The current building, which opened in 1912, is by a design of the architect, Hans Christian Amberg (1749–1815),[6] representing a modern reconstruction of the destroyed church.

The current spire is also a modern reconstruction of the original, financed in 1905 at the initiative and expense of the brewer Carl Jacobsen (1842-1914).

During this period, the venue hosted several noteworthy avant-garde events and exhibitions, including some of the earliest international Fluxus performances organized by Knud Pedersen and Arthur Köpcke in 1962.

Nikolaj Kunsthal collaborates with a range of organisations locally, nationally and internationally in the realm of new artistic forms and media.

[14][15] The art center's focusses on Copenhagen's contemporary art scene, presenting a program of changing exhibitions and events which has included artists Leonard Cohen, Andreas Emenius, Helmut Newton, Ditte Ejlerskov, HuskMitNavn, Candice Breitz and Superflex.