Christianshavn

Facts

Prosperous business and wretched poverty

By Søren Bitsch Christensen, Stadsarkivar (21 stories)

Christianshavn was once a market town in its own right, conceived by King Christian IV, and from the beginning was given over to trade and the military. The Dutch engineer, Johan Semp, designed a geometric layout for the town with a square, canals and straight streets. In 1618, construction got under way. The King handed over the building plots free of charge to citizens who would erect buildings befitting of a market town". In 1674, the district was incorporated into Copenhagen and ramparts were built. Over time, Christianshavn became a flourishing centre of commercial firms and factories. But this also created an underclass of paupers, who inhabited some of the most wretched houses in Denmark. "

Public place

Selected entry

Little Amsterdam in Copenhagen

Story written by Jakob Seerup

Time / Periode 1618

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In the heart of Copenhagen is a miniature version of Amsterdam; a town in the style of the Netherlands, complete with canals and warehouses and surrounded by ramparts as a living, breathing testimony to the close relations that existed between the Netherlands and Denmark in the 1600s. The 'Dutch quarter' was created by the Friesian town planner Johan Semp, who was summoned to Denmark in 1616 by King Christian IV. The King had grand plans for the muddy bank across from the capital, envisaging an independent market town where trade would flourish. Semp reclaimed land and laid out streets, squares and plots for merchant's houses, creating the quarter that came to be known as Christianshavn. The street called Strandgade in Christianshavn still shows how the original merchant's houses were built of brick and decorated with fine sandstone details. The finest gate on the street stands in front of the house of Admiral Cort Sivertsen Adeler. In 1637, at the age of 15, Adeler joined up to serve the Netherlands as an adelborst, or sea cadet. He was later in the service of Venice, fighting the Turks in several famous battles. In Denmark in 1663 he was made Admiral of the Fleet and took the Dutch-sounding name of Adeler when he was knighted. Many Dutch seamen were in the service of Denmark in the 1600s, and no doubt felt very much at home in Christianshavn.