Amagerbro Ravelin

Facts

Copenhagen's oldest fortifications

By Jakob Ingemann Parby, Cand.mag. i historie og etnologi fra Københavns Universitet, 2004. (6 stories)

The tollhouse at Amagerbro Ravelin was built in 1728 and was manned by soldiers guarding the city gate of Amagerport. They ensured that people paid their tollgate money and accise (tax) on goods brought into the city. The old French word, ravelin, refers to semicircular or angular fortifications connecting two bastions. The ravelin formed part of the Copenhagen ramparts. The ramparts around Christianshavn were built together with this part of town in 1618-20 and then rerouted and extended in the 1680s. The Christianshavn ramparts and Kastellet citadel are all that remain of the fortifications of this epoch.

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Have you paid your accise?

Story written by Jakob Ingemann Parby

Time / Periode 1728

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" The accise was a tax on consumer goods payable on entering the city gates. The proceeds were split between the State and the city. The accise was vital for the city governors, since only the State could collect property tax and income tax. The city governors' income came mainly from issuing trade licences and from the city's common land and properties. At the Amagerport city gate, the accise was paid mainly by the many peasant farmers from Amager who sold their vegetables and other produce on the city's market squares. "Acciseboden", built 1718-20, and closer to the city than the ravelin, is an enduring misnomer; it was not a tollbooth as its modern name suggests, but a gate-keeper's lodge. When the street of Torvegade was enlarged in the 1930s, the building was moved 10 metres northwards. "