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COPENHAGEN OLD AND NEW FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL POINT OF VIEW

A. LECTURE DELIVERED TO THE INTERNATIONAL VISITS ASSOCIATION

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BY

CAJUS TH. NOVI DIPL. ARCHITECT. M. A. k. F. C. P. I.

COPENHAGEN 1912

J. C O H E N S PRI NTI NG H O U SE - GEORG A. BACH -

Architecture being in a certain sense, petrified history, you may learn a great deal of the history of a town by its buildings. —In order not to tire you, I am in this paper only going to give you an outline of the coming into existence of Copenhagen." C Exavations for new buildings having been made near the harbour have clearly showed us, that already once upon a time, as we say in the fairytales, a little town lay there along the shore of “0resund”. In this paper I am going to deal with Copenhagen merely from an architectural point of view, and I shall therefore begin about the year 1200, for before that time no buildings of importance had existed. The founder of Copenhagen is the bishop Absalon, whose statue you see over the entrance of the new Town Hall; here he is represented as a prelate, and in the other statue of him in the “H0jbropla,ds” you may recognise him as a brave warrior on horseback, looking towards the Royal Palace. On this very spot, he erected his own castle, by means of which he was able to protect the little town against pirates, so that it prospered and spread very quickly. The castle of the bishop Absalon was probably built of heavy oak timber and somewhat like the norman castles we

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read of in the works of Sir Walter Scott .—Originally the town of Copenhagen consisted only of small and rather low wooden houses, lying round the harbour on small islands or rather islets, of which still exist for example that of the Royal Castle. During the following 100 years the town still grew, and four churches were built, the earliest was that of St. Nicola, the patron of the sailors, then came Our Lady’s Church, St. Peter’s and St. Clemens Church. This church does not exist anymore, but we know, that it has lain somewhere between the “Raadhus Plads” and the “Gammel Torv”.—This place be­ came soon the proper centre of the town, where the selling of fish was going on from small wooden booths, like those we may still see on the market places of provincial towns; not till far later were shops in the dwelling houses known. In this market place, the first Town Hall stood, but what it looked like, we do not know exactly; likely it was built partly of stone, at any rate for the ground floor part, to which a high external staircase gave entrance; probably it had a square tower too. The place before the Townhall has surely been adorned with some nice torture instruments, which certainly have been in use very often, for in those early days, the Gouvernment used to handle without mittens. By the end of the 14th century, about the year 1368 this first Townhall was burnt, and the magistracy moved to the then episcopal palace, that stood on the site of our present university. But soon the clergymen and the magistrates came to loggerheads, and some few years later they built a new Townhall of their own, again in the “Gammel Torv”, this time on the spot where we now find the “Kiosk”, opposite the foun

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tain, that springs with golden apples on the Kings birthday. Here the town hall remained until 1795 in which year a terrible fire destroyed a great part of Copenhagen. Among the public buildings from the 14th century were the “Monastery of the Greyfriars” and the “Hospital of the Holy Spirit”. Some of the monastery walls still exist, and may be seen in the cellars of two houses in the “Graabr0dre Torv” formerly the monastery’s orchard; the monastery was built of the oldfashioned large red bricks, that we call “Munke- sten” ; red bricks of the present size were not used in Copen­ hagen before 1500, or so, and the yellow ones not much till after 1728. Close to the monastery lay the beforenamed hospital in the very place of the present “Church of the Holy Spirit” ; besides this hospital the town had another outside the walls named “St. Jjzfrgen’s Hospital” merely used for contagious deseases, so we see, that even in those early days, they were —at least in some respects,—more hygienic, than we generally give them credit for. The houses of the common citizens were very small at this period; they had onely one story and were built of half timber- work, or even made entirely of wood, and their roofs were generally thatched. Consequently it was a very dangerous affair, when such a house caught fire; moreover the streets were winding, very narrow, and having many rubbish-heaps, were rather difficult to pass trough.—From these heaps a most delicious odour was spread by the pigs strolling around of their own accord; after all it wouldn’t just be the thing for our noses, but the pigs—I am sure—had an absolutely ripping time in those days.

6 The houses lay with their longest side facing the street, as you may see them still in small villages; not until about 100 years later,—that is about the beginning of the 16th century—it became general to build the houses of stone or bricks with tiled roofs and to place them with their gabled ends to the street; such gables being adorned with carved timber- work made the streets look most picturesque like so many of your own old provincial towns. This, as I have described above, was the aspect of Copen­ hagen during the reign of King Erik of Pomerania (1412—39); he was married to an english princess—Philippa— and by her heroism the town was saved from being plundered by the german “Hanses”. By this King the original castle of the bishop Absalon was enlarged (1416) in order to be more comfortable and up to date, and fitted for a royal residence. Unfortunately no true picture has been left to tell us, what this first residence was like; but after all it must have been a strong castle of stone, surrounded by moats and walls. Above the whole structure rose the so-called “Blue Tower” which was used as a prison during many hundred years. Within the forteresses lay the royal residence consisting of many separate buildings—as the church; the stables; stores; dwellings for the servants and the women, and inmost the King’s own build­ ing. From this time—the beginning of the 15th century—all the danish Kings have had their residence here until 1795, and again in a short period from 1828—84.— As I have mentioned above, the third Townhall was erected in the “Gammel Torv” at the beginning of the 15th century;— unlike most buildings at this time we know from old pictures

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what this one was like. It was a comparatively high building in two storeys of red bricks, and with serrated gables, a characteristic feature in ‘danish gothic architecture; it had a square tower, which later on was surmounted with a spire. Next to the entrance door you would find, protruding from the wall a long iron bar carrying a sort of a chafing dish in which a fire was kept burning all night long; this silly illumination was the only public lightning in the town, and not until some 200 years later (1680) were regular street lamps used. Copen­ hagen was but a little town then, lying within the present boulevards, the street “Gothersgade” and the harbour; it was surrounded with moats and ramparts planted with trees, so that only the “Blue Tower” and the spires of the four churches rose above the trees.— In the course of the 16th century however, the town was very much changed. The Royal Castle was once more rebuilt and enlarged with a huge wing in 5 storeys facing the “H0j- broplads”, and under the reign of King Chr. IV. the „Blue Tower" was surmounted with a magnificent spire adorned with three golden coronets placed on a high vanestaff. Such vane- staffs are a characteristic mark of many of the buildings raised by this King; you may see them for example on the castle of “Rosenborg”, on the Royal Exchange and others of his. King Chr. IV. went particularly in for every thing con­ cerned with architecture, and as a brother in law of your King James the 1st, he took a journey to England, and met there your celebrated architect Inigo Jones. From this visit to Eng­ land date the names “Denmark Hill” ; “Denmark House”, “Copenhagen Field” and some others.

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Among other buildings still existing from the reign of King Chr. IV. I shall name “Regensen”, a sort of a boarding house free of charge for the undergraduates; the “Church of the Royal Dockyard”, formerly a smithy; and the most curious of them all, the “Round Tower”, c. 1640, with its spiral vaulted interial roadway, which enables you to drive up to the top of the tower from which you have a magnificent and comprehen­ sive view of the town and its environs. Originally it was planned for astronomical observations to which the King took a great fancy. Also the fleet increased very much and the harbour now being too small, it was enlarged northward, which again gave rise to the founding of “Nyboder”, a group of dwellings for the dockyard people. This people lived formerly'in the streets round the Church of St. Nicola, and therefore we find still many of the same names of streets in these two different quarters of the town. The founding of the “Nyboder” out of the ramparts gave rise to a quick increase of the town in other different directions, and already in 1618 we find the beginning of “Christianshavn”, the part of Copenhagen on the other side of the harbour. The principal church of this quarter is the “Church of our Saviour”, erected 1682 during the reign of King Christian V, by the archi­ tect Lamberth v. Haven; later on it was adorned with the curious spiral formed spire, by the architect Laurids de Thura in 1749. Owing to the isolated situation, “Christianshavn" has been saved from the many fires, that have ravaged the other parts of Copenhagen, and you may therefore still find more quaint old houses here, than in any other part of the town; with its many

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canals, it is the most picturesque too, and gives quite a dutch impression. In this period the red brick is now generally used also for the private dwellings, and the roofs are tiled with red or sometimes black tiles. The gables facing the streets are adorned with sandstone round the windows and doors. Such sandstone ornaments are a characteristic mode of buildings of this period built more or less in the style called the “Dutch Renaissance”. Yoy may see a fine example of this style in the so-calle

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One of the latest buildings from the dutch period, is the large red building in dutch bricks in the “Kongens Nytorv” ; this building has—like so many others—for its architect a dutch man named Ewert Jansen, who built it for one of the King’s natural sons “Gyldenlpve”. It belonged some years to his family, and thereafter it was used in different ways until 1754, since when it has been the home of “The Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Another building made of the dark red-brown dutch briks you may find in the street “Store Kongensgade Nr. 72 originally built for a dutch merchant Deconinck. Little by little the Barocco Style began, introduced in Denmark by french artists, and their influence may be especially noticed in the then new part of Copenhagen, namely the “Set. Anna Kvarter” and the “Amalienborg Kvarter” built in the first half of the 18th Century. On the whole since that time we owe very much to the genius of the french artists. One of the first and most prominent presidents of our Royal Academy was the celebrated french sculptor Sally, who also has made the fine equestrian statue of Fr. V. on the Amalienborg Place. Another french artist who lived here at that time was the architect Jardin, who made the original project for the Marble Church; he is also said to have rebuilt the side-fagade of the so-called Thott’s Palace.—The name of Set. Anna derives from a church, Set. Anna Rotunda, that formerly stood on the site of the present infantery barracks in the street “S01vgade” ; the church was burnt and demolished in 1658—59, and its debris have been used for some of the barracks in the “Citadel of Copen­ hagen” a forteress—in some respects like the Tower of London. The other quarter, the most fashionable, owes its name to

11 the “Sophie Amalienborg”, a royal palace surrounded with orangeries and parks lying between the harbour and the street “Bredgade”. Like so many other buildings also this palace was burnt (1689) and the large grounds remained unused until 1746, when the King Frederik V. charged his architect Nicolai Eigtved to make plans for buildings and laying out of streets in this new quarter, and already twenty years after nearly all the grounds were occupied.— ^ One of the first buildings raised here was the present British Legation;—further the four pavilions of “The Frederiks Hos­ pital” by Laurids de Thura, the same architect, who has made the nice little Royal hunting lodge, “Eremitagen,” near Copen­ hagen. Among the finest buildings planned by Nicolai Eigtved are the four palaces surrounding the octangular “Amalien­ borg place” and forming together the present Royal Residence. From an architectural point of view this octangular place, the four royal palaces and the adjacent “Marble Church” with its exceptionally finely shaped dome, forms one of the finest and noblest “Ensembles” you may find in the world. The “Marble Church” is built in our days but was as mentioned above originally planned by the french architect Jardin whose project recalls very much St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Among Barocco buildings in the other quarters of Copen­ hagen are the two fine buildings of the “Asiatic Company” one of which was erected by the architect Phillip de Lange. Also the curious Crane in the royal dock-yard is by him. Further on the Christian’s Church, by Nicolai Eigtved; the

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12 spire, however, has for its architect his son in law Anthon. In the old town I shall name “The National Museum” also by Eigtved, and opposite it, the then magnificent Royal Palace, “Christiansborg”, with its stables and theatre, erected during the reign of King Chr. VI. by the architects Heuser and Eigtved and richly adorned by the greatest artists of the time (c. 1740). Unfortunately this most magnificent example of the barocco style in Copenhagen cought fire 1794 and only the stables and the theatre are still existing. Little by little, the influence of the Barocco disappeared, and the interest in the Antique awackened all over Europe, by the excavations made in Grece by your celebrated country­ men the architects Stuart, Revett, Cockerell and others;— similiar excavations were made in Rome by french and german architects.— Our own architects now began to study in Grece and intro­ duced the antique style in Denmark; one of the first examples is the so-called “Colonnade” in “Amaliegade” by the architect Harsdorff. —As mentioned above the Royal Castle was burnt in 1794; the next year the same thing happened to the Town Hall in the “Gammel Torv”, as well as to many other buildings, and with the 18th century we shall find, that much of the old- fashioned Copenhagen with its winding, narrow and insanitary streets has disappeared. At the first Empire, a new era begins and many buildings are raised. First the “Criminal Court” in 1805; Our Lady’s Church in 1809; The Royal Castle and its church in 1820, all by the architect C. F. Hansen; some years later, 1839 the museum for the works and collections of our great sculptor “Thorvaldsen” was raised by the architect Bindesb0ll.

13 All the buildings from this period have generally plastered facades of a dignified but most spartan impression, very char- achteristic for that impoverished time. Little by little Copenhagen devellops to its present size and aspect especially after the disappearing of the old ramparts and moats, which have lain round the town like a tight fitting belt; where they used to be, we now find the parks, that sep­ arate the suburbs from the old town, an arrangement that means very much in respect of sanitation. , Most of the public buildings from the middle and the close of the last century, as well as many of the dwellinghouses are built with motives from the italian renaissance, and the trade and industry increasing more and more we shall find the build­ ing materials of the houses finer and more sumptious than be­ fore; among fine buildings from this period called “The Italian Renaissance” I shall name “The Royal Theatre” by Dahlerup; “The National Bank” by Herholdt and “The Royal Society of Sience” by the architect Vilh. Petersen. By and by the motives and styles are mixed, quite naturally owing to the easy intercourse now a days between the different countries of Europe. As a prominent example from this transi­ tion period I shall direct your attention to our „New Townhall” built 1894— 1905 by Martin Nyrop, where the italian renais­ sance has met with motives from our own country. Since then the most up to date tendency is to awaken the interest in our old country seats and town buildings of the national material— the red brick—and to give the architecture of our modern buildings a national style of its own.—It goes without saying that I can not begin to point out to you any single example of ~ V

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the hundred buildings by my own contemporary colleagues. I therefore just recall to you the words on the grave of Sir Chri­ stopher Wren in St. Paul’s Cathedral: “Look around you and you will see his monument”.