Knabrostræde Knabrostræde is a street in the Old Town of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs from Strøget (Vimmelskaftet/Nygade) in the northwest to Nybrogade at Slotsholmen Canal in the southeast, crossing Strædet (Kompagnistræde) on the way. History The st ...

30, also known as Det Ferske Fiskehandler-Kompagnis Hus (The Fresh Fish-Trading Company's House), is an 18th-century former fish warehouse situated on the Gammel Strand-Nybrogade canalfront, opposite Thorvaldsens Museum, in central

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark. Kay Bojesen's silver workshop was from 1913 to 1930 based in the basement at Nybrogade 14. The building has now been converted into office space and a restaurant. It was listed in the Danish registry of protected buildings and places in 1918.

History

Early history

The site was formerly made up of three smaller properties. One of them was listed in Copenhagen's first

cadastre A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented gra ...

of 1689 as No. 19 in Snaren's Quarter and belonged to beer seller (''øltapper'') Jens Høg at that time. Another one was listed as No. 20 and belonged to Anders Olsen. The third one was listed as No. 24 and belonged to merchant Peder Christensen. The three properties were in 1733 merged into a single property by Det Ferske Fiskehandels Compagnie (The Fresf Fish Trading Company) ) and used for the construction of the current building on the site.The company may have been a continuation of the city Fishmongers' Guild. ''Kjøbenhavns Diplomatarium om Kjøbenhavns ældre forhold før 1728'' mentions the establishment of a Fishmongers' Guild in Copenhagen on 14 April 1696 with a monopoly on trade in all kinds of fresh fish in the city. The monopoly was created to keep prices down but had the opposite effect and was therefore dissolved in 1702. Det Ferske Fiskehandels Compagnie may have been a continuation of this guild's activities since it is known to have been continued in some form but it is unknown under what name. The property was in 1756 as No. 16 owned by Knud Carlsen. He served as royal fishing master of Copenhagen, Frederiksborg and Kronborg counties from 1751 to 1762. He is also remembered for building the house now known as

Carlsberg Carlsberg may refer to: Places * Carlsberg (district), a district in Copenhagen, Denmark ** Carlsberg station, its train station * Carlsberg, Germany, a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * Carlsberg Fjord, Greenland Other uses * Carlsbe ...

at Hillerød in 1760.

Just Ludvigsen and his family

The building was before 1787 acquired by captain, merchant and ship-owner Just Ludvigsen (1742-1818). He was by then living there with his wife Mette Birgitte (née Tranberg, 1761–1813) and their daughtersDorethea, Anne Catrine, Lovise Marie and Inger Marie. Ludvigsen owned a number of smaller ships which sailed on European ports. Their daughter Dorothea Ludwigsen (1779-) married the bookkeeper and later bank manager Gunni Olsen Busck (1765-1821). A total of 22 people distributed on five households were at the time of the 1787 census registered on the address. Casper Claudius Bierck (1736-1809), a naval officer, then with rank of captain, was with his wife also among the residents. The other tenants were a royal kitchen clerk (''kongelig køkkenskriver''), an accountant in Rentekammeret (''renteskriver'') and a beer vendor (''øltapper''). The actor

Hans Christian Knudsen Hans Christian Knudsen (March 4, 1763 – March 4, 1816) was a Danish stage actor and opera singer. He was an elite actor of the Royal Danish Theatre in 1786–1816, known for his roles in theater comedy and opera performances. During the Battle ...

(1763-1816) was among the residents from 1797 to 1802. He was the first actor to be created a Knight in the Order of the Dannebrog. Ludvigsen's property in Knabrostræde was in the new

of 1806 listed as No. 15. Ludvigsen's daughter Birgitte and her husband Peder Horrebow Homann (1683—1861) were by 1840 residing with their three children on the ground floor. The son Just Homann (1819-1850) published two books in the 1840s but was killed in the

Battle of Isted The Battle of Isted ( da, Slaget på Isted Hede; german: Die Schlacht bei Idstedt) took place on 25 July 1850 near the village of Idstedt (Danish: ''Isted''), in what is today Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The battle was part of the First Schlesw ...

Bollingstedt Bollingstedt ( da, Bollingsted) is a municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most pop ...

on 25 July 1850. The building was at the time of the 1860 census home to a total of 20 people. Peder and Birgieete Homann were still among the residents.

Later history

The illustrator Peter Christian Nygaard Mattat Klæstrup resided on the first floor at Knabrostræde 30 in the years around 1864. Carl Bang, a combined fish wholesale and retail business, was in the last part of the century based in the basement. The company was later based in the now demolished building at Gammel Strand 28. The silversmith O. Dajl had his silver workshop in the basement at Nybrogade 14 in the years around 1900. In 1913, it was taken over by Kay Bojesen. In 1930, he sold it to assume a position as artistic director of

Bing & Grøndahl Bing & Grøndahl was a Danish porcelain manufacturer founded in 1853 by the sculptor Frederik Vilhelm Grøndahl and merchant brothers Meyer Hermann Bing and Jacob Herman Bing. The trademark backstamp for Bing & Grøndahl (B&G) porcelains is the t ...

. The building was in more recent times acquired by

Bent Fabricius-Bjerre Bent Fabricius-Bjerre (7 December 1924 – 28 July 2020), better known internationally as Bent Fabric, was a Danish pianist and composer. Biography Bent Fabricius-Bjerre was born in Frederiksberg, Denmark. He started a jazz ensemble after W ...

and his two sons via the property companyb Metorion. In January 2021, it was announced that Vision Ejendomme/Vision Properties had acquired Knabrostræde 30as part of a portfolio of eight historic buildings.

Architecture

The building is constructed in red brick with three storeys over a walk-out basement around an asymmetrically shaped

light well In architecture, a lightwell,light well, light-well sky-well,skywell, sky well or air shaft is an unroofed or roofed external space provided within the volume of a large building to allow light and air to reach what would otherwise be a dark or ...

. It has a 12 bays long facade towards Knabrostræde, four bays towards Magstræde and five bays towards Nybrogade. The facade towards Knabrostræde is crowned by a three-bay gabled

wall dormer A wall dormer is a dormer whose facial plane is integral with the facial plane of the wall that it is built into, breaking the line of the eaves of a building. Wall dormers are less commonly seen than typical “roof dormers”. They locate the w ...

with a pulley beam. The main entrance in one of the two central bays is surrounded by a lavishly decorated sandstone portal, incorporating a round window with the

house number House numbering is the system of giving a unique number to each building in a street or area, with the intention of making it easier to locate a particular building. The house number is often part of a postal address. The term describes the numb ...

(30). The sandstone portal was added as late as 1915 and is a copy of a sandstone portal from Dronningensgade. A basement entrance is located in the other central bay. The facade is decorated with two rows of '' Fleur-de-lis''-shaped

wall anchor A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including: * Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the supe ...

s between the upper floors. The facade towards Nybrogade is crowned by a three-bay gabled wall dormer with

cornice returns In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

. The basement entrance in the second bay from the right is topped by a

key stone Keystone or key-stone or ''variation'', may refer to: * Keystone (architecture), a central stone or other piece at the apex of an arch or vault * Keystone (cask), a fitting used in ale casks Business * Keystone Law, a full-service law firm * Di ...

decorated with a

buoy A buoy () is a floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift with ocean currents. Types Navigational buoys * Race course marker buoys are used for buoy racing, the most prevalent form of yac ...

. This decorative element was also added in 1915. The construction year (1733) is written on the wall with large metal numbers between the windows on the second and third floors. The four-bay gable towards Magstræde is also finished with gable returns.

Today

The building is owned by Vision Properties, a property company jointly owned by Lars Larsen Group and Schou Family Invest. Restaurant 1733 is based in the basement at Nybrogade 14. The rest of the building is let out as office space.m with shared canteen facilities in the garret.

Gallery

File:Det Ferske Fiskehandler-Kompagnis Hus.jpg, Corner of Magstræde (right) and Knabrostræde (left) File:Knabrostræde 30 (Copenhagen) - detail 03.jpg, Door File:Nybrogade 14 - door.jpg, Detail from Nybrogade 14 File:Nybrogade 14 - house number.jpg, Keystone at Nybrogade 14 File:Det Ferske Fiskehandler-Kompagnis Hus - Nybrogade 14.jpg, Nybrogade 14 File:Nybrogade 30 - house number.jpg, Detail from Knabrostræde 30

References

External links

{{Commons category, Det Ferske Fiskehandler-Kompagnis Hus
Source

1787 census
1733 establishments in Denmark Buildings and structures completed in 1733 Listed residential buildings in Copenhagen Office buildings in Denmark Residential buildings in Copenhagen Warehouses in Denmark