Sankt Hans Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in

Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 51,916 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...

on the Danish island of

Zealand Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020. It is the 1 ...

, 30 km from

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 ...

. Although situated in the Zealand Region, it is owned by the

Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

and serves patients from that region. The land was bought by the forerunner of

Copenhagen Municipality Copenhagen Municipality ( da, Københavns Kommune), also known in English as the Municipality of Copenhagen, located in the Capital Region of Denmark, is the largest of the four municipalities that constitute the City of Copenhagen (), the other ...

at the beginning of the 1800s so it could relocate the municipality's psychiatric hospital to a more rural location. With a history beginning in 1620, the hospital now has 180 beds and offers specialized treatment in the areas of

forensic psychiatry Forensic psychiatry is a subspeciality of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiat ...

and

dual diagnosis Dual diagnosis (also called co-occurring disorders (COD) or dual pathology) is the condition of having a mental illness and a comorbid substance use disorder. There is considerable debate surrounding the appropriateness of using a single catego ...

History

The institution was first known as Københavns Pesthus which accommodated mentally ill patients from c. 1620 to 1651 when it moved to

Copenhagen Castle Copenhagen Castle ( da, Københavns Slot) was a castle on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built in the late 14th century and was located at the site of the current Christiansborg Palace. History In 1167, Bish ...

's Ladegård in 1651. In 1808, the Copenhagen authorities bought Bistrup Manor in Roskilde for the care of the mentally ill, invalids and the poor. By the 1850s, the number of psychiatric patients had substantially increased, necessitating the establishment of a new treatment centre designed by

Gottlieb Bindesbøll Michael Gottlieb Birckner Bindesbøll (5 September 1800 – 14 July 1856) was a Denmark, Danish architect active during the Danish Golden Age in the first half of the 19th century. Most known for his design of Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen, he ...

which was completed in 1859. The hospital was later expanded in order to function as Copenhagen's psychiatric hospital with some 2,000 beds. In 1987,

Roskilde County Roskilde Amt () is a former county () on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. The county was abolished effective January 1, 2007, when it merged into Region Sjælland (i.e. ''Region Zealand''). Roskilde is also the name of ...

acquired part of the facilities which it called Roskilde Amtssygehus Fjorden. As of 2014, the Psykiatrisk Center Sct. Hans, specializing in forensic psychiatry and dual diagnosis is under the authority of the psychiatric department of the

Capital Region of Denmark The Capital Region of Denmark ( da, Region Hovedstaden, ) is the easternmost administrative region of Denmark. The Capital Region has 29 municipalities and a regional council consisting of 41 elected members. As of 1 August 2021 the chairperso ...

Today's hospital

With a staff of some 600, the hospital has 180 beds in 13 open and closed units for forensic patients and psychotic patients with substance abuse. There is also an outpatient clinic in Copenhagen.

References

External links

Psykiatrisk Center Sct. Hans website
with a
overview in English

Sankt Hans Hospital
at arkark.dk
Source
{{coord, 55, 39, 02, N, 12, 04, 07, E, display=title Roskilde Psychiatric hospitals in Denmark Hospitals established in the 17th century Buildings and structures in Roskilde Municipality