gamleskibegamlehuse

of the island and from the construction of the canal which devides the area on the Dutch system. A certain amount of land was also reclaimed from the sea during the course of this work. The new township’s charter gave it the status of »købstad«, and co rre ­ sponded roughly to that of a modern county borough, and the independence that this gave to it, led to a certain amount of strife between the citizens of the capital and the burgesses of the new town. The same independence gave ce r­ tain economic advantages, and led to the selection of Christianshavn as the site of many commercial enterprises. From this time onwards shipbuilding was an important activity in the area around Grønnegaards Havn. Several of Copenhagen’s larger ventures originated in this neighbourhood (ill. p. 7), and it is in fact, from an historical po in t of view, one of the most interesting parts of Christianshavn. The Royal Archives and the Copenhagen city records and o ther archives have been searched for material to this book, bu t a complete trea tm en t of the documents concerning this area would necessitate a work many times the size of this book. It is of particular in terest at the moment in that the new machine shops and administration offices being bu ilt for B &W will completely alter the whole of this part of Copenhagen’s w aterfron t and it is for this reason that this book has been published.

T H E A N C I E N T W I N T E R H A R B O U R O F C O P E N H A G E N

Grønnegaards Havn was originally a natural creek, and its importance lay in its proxim ity to the capital. It lay close to Revshalen, the po in t of land from which plied a ferry to Copenhagen (ill. p. 9). About the year 1600 king Christian IV founded a closed harbour in the immediate neighbourhood of the castle of Copenhagen intended to shelter the Royal Danish Navy (ill. p. 11), and later on the king (ill. p. 13) ordered the- building of the Knippels Bridge to connect the capital w ith the newly estab­ lished town.

A N A P P L E O F D I S C O R D F O R T W O C IT IE S

Though the town was, for the most part, bu ilt on reclaimed land, there were numerous disputes concerning the demarcation of building sites, especially those on the water front. A particularly long drawn-out affair was that concerning the p roperty of Hans Knip. This gentleman has gained a certain degree of immortality in that

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