The Danish Asiatic Company's warehouses, Strandgade 25, Asiatisk Plads

Facts

Warehouses from Denmark's heyday

By Hanne Fabricius, Cand.phil. arkæolog, ph.d.-stipendiat (13 stories)

The three buildings on Asiatisk Plads at Strandgade 25 were all built by the Danish Asiatic Company during the period known as the Flourishing Trading Period". The semidetached front buildings were built in 1738 and 1739, respectively, by Architect Philip de Lange as offices, and in 1781 as a camouflaged warehouse. The long warehouse behind was built by Royal Master Builder Nicolai Eigtved in 1748-50 in limestone from a local island called Saltholm. The exterior of the front building has not changed significantly since it was built, unlike Eigtved's warehouse, which lost two of its 23 bays to a harbour expansion project in 1918. The Danish Asiatic Company's warehouses was listed in that same year. "

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18th-century global Danish enterprise

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Story written by Hanne Fabricius

Time / Periode 1738 1843

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In the 18th century, rows of warehouses began shooting up along all Copenhagen's quaysides. This was where exotic overseas goods such as coffee, tea, sugar, fine fabrics, porcelain, saltpetre for gunpowder, pepper, indigo, Chinese rhubarb and much more besides were stored and sold on to the entire Baltic Region. The Danish Asiatic Company was founded in 1732, and soon became a flourishing company responsible for managing the Danish colonies in India, including Tranquebar, as well as the trading station in China. Its fortune grew to such as size that it paid for the expensive but famous statue of King Frederik V on his horse in Amalienborg Palace Square created by the French sculptor Jacques Salys. The company closed in 1843.