Borchs Kollegium, originally known as

Collegium A (plural ), or college, was any association in ancient Rome that acted as a legal entity. Following the passage of the ''Lex Julia'' during the reign of Julius Caesar as Consul and Dictator of the Roman Republic (49–44 BC), and their rea ...

Mediceum, is a university

dormitory A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or universi ...

situated on

Store Kannikestræde Store Kannikestræde is a street in the Old Town of Copenhagen, Denmark, connecting Frue Plads to Købmagergade. Its history is closely associated with the University of Copenhagen and some of Copenhagen's oldest halls of residence are located in ...

in the Old Town of

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 a ...

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 = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. It is one of the oldest dormitories of the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

. It was founded in 1691 but its current building, its third, is from 1825.

The Building

Borchs Kollegium was founded in 1690 by

Ole Borch Ole Borch (7 April 1626 – 13 October 1690) (latinized to ''Olaus Borrichius'' or ''Olaus Borrichus'') was a Danish scientist, physician, grammarian, and poet. He was royal physician to both Kings Frederick III of Denmark and Christian V of Den ...

who was a chemist at the University of Copenhagen. It The original house, complete with Borchs library and chemical laboratories was destroyed, along with much of the city in the

Great Fire of Copenhagen The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 was the largest fire in the history of Copenhagen, Denmark. It began on the evening of 20 October 1728 and continued to burn until the morning of 23 October. It destroyed approximately 28% of the city (measured by cou ...

in 1728. The house was rebuilt using remnants of the old walls, and stood ready three years and 5500 rigsdaler later, in 1731.

The second building

Because of Danish foreign policy in the beginning of the 19th century,

was the scene of some conflict with the British navy. In the

Battle of Copenhagen (1807) The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) (16 August – 7 September 1807) was a British bombardment of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, in order to capture or destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet during the Napoleonic W ...

British forces decided to prevent Napoleon from getting hold of the Danish fleet. According to the history of Borchs Kollegium (see references) some of students of Borchs Kollegium participated in these skirmishes. Bombardments were especially heavy in the area around Vor Frue Plads and on the third day, September 4, fire broke out in the Kollegium and the building burned to the ground.

The third building

The third building – the house that stands today – was built in 1824-25 under supervision of architect

Peder Malling Peter is a common masculine given name. It is derived directly from Greek , ''Petros'' (an invented, masculine form of Greek '' petra,'' the word for "rock" or "stone"), which itself was a translation of Aramaic ''Kefa'' ("stone, rock"), the new ...

. It was inaugurated on May 28, 1825.

Residents

Many famous people have lived in Borchs Kollegium. Especially noteworthy is

Ludvig Holberg Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg (3 December 1684 – 28 January 1754) was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Dano-Norwegian dual monarchy. He was influenced by Humanism, ...

- a famous Danish dramatist, essayist and historian. From 1748 to 1754 he was efor – head of the Kollegium. Also the Danish war hero Jens Paludan-Müller, student-resident no. 703, lived in Borchs Kollegium for two years before joining the

Second war of Schleswig The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. ...

. He was killed near

Sankelmark Sankelmark is a former municipality in Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. It is about 5 miles south of Flensburg. There was a battle there in the Second War of Schleswig (1864). On March 1, 2008 Sankelmark was incorporated into Oeversee. External li ...

Lake on February 6, 1864, and a memorial stone in the garden of the Kollegium still commemorates this event. It reads:

References

* Johannes Pedersen: ''Borchs kollegiums historie 1728-1823''. København: Gad 1916.

External links

*
Source

Source
{{University of Copenhagen, university, state = expanded University and college residential buildings in Copenhagen University of Copenhagen Listed residential buildings in Copenhagen