Mastekranen (
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: The Masting Crane) is an 18th-century
masting sheer
A masting sheer, sheers, shears or masting crane is a specialised shipyard crane, intended for placing tall masts onto large sailing ships. "Sheers" is an old name for a fixed crane formed by one or two wooden beams, fixed at the base and supported ...
and present
landmark
A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances.
In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...
on
Holmen in
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
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
. It was designed by architect
Philip de Lange
Philip de Lange (c. 1705 – 17 September 1766) was a leading Dutch-Danish architect who designed many different types of building in various styles including Dutch Baroque and Rococo.
Early life and family
Philip de Lange was probably born ...
and built in 1748–51 as part of the
Royal Naval Shipyard at
Holmen.
History
Under the reign of
Frederick III, Holmen was established through a series of
land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...
s to replace the naval base and shipyard at
Bremerholm
Gammelholm ( lit. "Old Islet") is a predominantly residential neighbourhood in the city centre of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is bounded by the Nyhavn canal, Kongens Nytorv, Holmens Kanal, Niels Juels Gade and the waterfront along Havnegade. For ce ...
. The first ship to be set to sea from Nyholm was
Dannebrog
Dannebrog (until the mid-20th century often spelled Danebrog) may refer to:
Flags and orders
* The national Flag of Denmark
* Order of the Dannebrog ( da, Dannebrogordenen, links=no), a Royal Danish decoration
Places
* Dannebrog Island, an i ...
in 1692 and in the following years the construction of all major vessels gradually moved there. The facilities at Holmen were constantly expanded over the next centuries.
Earlier the building of sailing ships had not required sheers to erect their mast, as it could be lifted into place by ropes and allowed to pivot around its foot. As ships became larger, it was no longer possible to mount their masts, taller and heavier, in this fashion. A crane was needed, tall enough to lift the entire mast vertically and then lower it into the ship. It was as a consequence of this development that the Masting Crane on Nyholm was erected in 1748–51. In the late 19th century, the increasing size and capacity of general harbour cranes began to overlap with the lofty but lightweight masting sheers and so their specialisation was no longer required.
In 1918 all shipyard activities at Nyholm were discontinued and moved to
Frederiksholm
Naval Station Holmen ( da, Flådestation Holmen) is one of several naval stations of the Royal Danish Navy, supplementing the two Danish naval bases in Frederikshavn and Korsør.
Founded in the late 17th century, it is also a visitor attract ...
.
![Peder Skram sunken in Copenhagen 29 August 1943](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Peder_Skram_sunken_in_Copenhagen_29_August_1943.jpg)
During WWII, the Danish fleet chose to scuttle themselves in response to
Operation Safari
Operation Safari (german: Unternehmen Safari) was a German military operation during World War II aimed at disarming the Danish military. It led to the scuttling of the Royal Danish Navy and the internment of all Danish soldiers. Danish forces su ...
. The coastal defence ship
HDMS ''Peder Skram'' was scuttled at the quay alongside the crane.
Architecture
The Masting Crane was designed by Phillip de Lange in the
baroque style
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
. While it appears to be a masonry tower with a wooden jib atop, the entire crane is in fact a timber structure with the outer wall only serving as a protective shield against sun, rain and wind. The uppermost wooden structure is kept together by
tar
Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bit ...
red rope to make it more flexible and not to weaken the wood.
Even though the Masting Crane is "just" a piece of
industrial equipment
Industrial technology is the use of engineering and manufacturing technology to make production faster, simpler, and more efficient. The industrial technology field employs creative and technically proficient individuals who can help a company ach ...
, it has been designed with gradually lower windows for each floor to create an
optical illusion
Within visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide v ...
making it appear taller and more imposing.
The masting sheer in art
File:Holmen destructions 1807.jpg, C. W. Eckersberg: British destructions at Holmen (1807)
File:Indsejlingen til København )J. C. Dahl).jpg, Johan Christian Dahl
Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 178814 October 1857), often known as or , was a Danish-Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting, and, by some ...
: ''Indsejlingen til København'' (1830)
Thorvaldsen Museum
The Thorvaldsen Museum is a single-artist museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, dedicated to the art of Danish Neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), who lived and worked in Rome for most of his life (1796–1838). The museum is locat ...
, Copenhagen
File:Dahl - Copenhagen Harbour by Moonlight.jpg, J. C. Dahl: Port of Copenhagen (1846)
Metropolitan Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, New York
See also
References
{{reflist
Listed industrial buildings in Copenhagen
Individual cranes (machines)
Shipyard cranes
Landmarks in Copenhagen
Industrial buildings in Copenhagen
Baroque architecture in Copenhagen
Port of Copenhagen
Philip de Lange buildings