Kongens Lyngby (, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of

Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality (occasionally spelled Lyngby-Tårbæk, ) is a municipality () in the Capital Region of Denmark near Copenhagen on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand (). It is part of the Greater Copenhagen area. The municipali ...

in the northern suburbs of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping street and the site of a branch of

Magasin du Nord Magasin is a Denmark, Danish chain of department stores. It has seven department stores with its flagship store located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The company is a subsidiary of the German department store retailer Peek & Cloppenburg, Peek & ...

as well as Lyngby Storcenter. The district is also home to several major companies, including

COWI A/S COWI A/S is an international consulting group, specializing in engineering, environmental science and economics, with headquarters located in Lyngby, Denmark. It has been involved in more than 50,000 projects in 175 countries and has approximat ...

Bang & Olufsen Bang & Olufsen (B&O) is a Danish high-end consumer electronics company that designs and manufactures Sound recording and reproduction, audio products, television sets, and telephones, originally from Denmark, founded in 1925 by Peter Bang (enginee ...

, ICEpower a/s and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. The

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark (), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and it is today ran ...

relocated to Lyngby from central Copenhagen in the 1970s.

Lyngby station Lyngby station is a railway station serving the town and suburb of Kongens Lyngby in Greater Copenhagen, Denmark. It is situated centrally in Kongens Lyngby, a short distance from its main artery Lyngby Hovedgade. With its large bus terminal, situ ...

is located on the Hillerød radial of Copenhagen's

S-train The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

network.

History

The name Kongens Lyngby is first recorded in 1348. At that time large parts of

North Zealand North Zealand, also North Sealand (), refers to the northeastern part of the Danish island of Zealand. The Danish tourist authorities have recently introduced the term Danish Riviera to cover the area in view of its increasing importance for to ...

belonged to the Catholic Church (represented by Roskilde Cathedral and the name Lyngby was associated with several places.

Store Lyngby Store may refer to: Enterprises * Retail store, a shop where merchandise is sold, usually products and usually on a retail basis, and where wares are often kept ** App store, an online retail store where apps are sold, included in many mobile op ...

belonged to Arresø church. "Our" Lyngby, on the other hand, was crown land. It may therefore have been to distinguish it from these other places that the name emerged. The original Lyngby village is now known as

Bondebyen Bondebyen (''Pesants' Town'' in Danish) is a historical neighbourhood of Kongens Lyngby. It is considered the best-preserved country town of the Copenhagen area, albeit it is now in the middle of the heavily urbanized Lyngby-Taarbæk municipality ...

. Kongens Lyngby was also the site of a watermill, Lyngby Watermill, which is first mentioned in 1492 but is probably several hundred years older. A royal road,

Lyngby Kongevej Secondary route 201 (Danish language, Danish: Sekundærrute 201) is a numbered road in North Zealand to the north of Copenhagen, Denmark, consisting of Lyngby Omfartsvej, a bypass (road), motorway bypass avoiding Lyngby Hovedgade (Lyngby Main Stre ...

, was created in 1584 to provide an easy link between Copenhagen and Frederick's new

Frederiksborg Castle Frederiksborg Castle () is a palatial complex in Hillerød, Denmark. It was built as a royal residence for Christian IV of Denmark, King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway in the early 17th century, replacing an older castle acquired by Frederick II ...

from where it was later extended to

Fredensborg Fredensborg () is a railway town located in Fredensborg Municipality, North Zealand, some 30 kilometres north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is most known for Fredensborg Palace, one of the official residences of the Danish royal family. As of 1 Janua ...

and

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; ), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a coastal city in northeastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 63,953 on 1 January 2025, making it the 23rd most populated municipality in Denmark. Helsin ...

. It was the first of a number of royal roads created by Frederick II and his successor

Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is the longest in Scandinavian history. A member of the H ...

. In the 18th century, a growing number of country houses were built in the area by civil servants and merchants from Copenhagen. Kongens Lyngby had no market rights but developed into a local service centre with an increasing number of craftsmen and merchants. The

North Line North Line may refer to: Transportation Asia *North Line, Chennai Suburban, India * North-Link Line, Taiwan *West North Line, Chennai Suburban, India Europe *Far North Line, Scotland *Gjøvik Line, Norway *Nordbanen, Denmark North America *Milwau ...

came to Lyngby in 1863 and was extended to

in 1864. This enabled citizens from Copenhagen to settle permanently in the area. Several factories opened in the area, including

Christian Hasselbalck A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Chr ...

's curtain factory in 1892 which later became the town's largest employer. In the 1930s, Kongens Lyngby developed into a modern suburb. The North Line was converted into an

line with more stations and Kongens Lyngby gradually merged with the neighboring settlements.

Culture

The Open Air Museum (Frilandsmuseet) is located in Lyngby and is visited by more than 200,000 people each year. The museum includes more than 100 historic buildings that were moved to the area. The Lyngby Culture House (Lyngby Kulturhus) contains several restaurants and cafes, along with a cinema - the Cinema Palace (Kinopalæeet) which opened in 2001. Near to Lyngby station, Templet (The Temple) is a venue which regularly hosts concerts.

Notable residents

Public persons

Vilhelm Theodor Walther Vilhelm Theodor Walther (13 November 1819 – 28 August 1892) was a Danish architect and Royal Building Inspector for Jutland. He was born in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark and died in Aarhus. He was twice awarded the Academy's Neuhausen Prize () for ex ...

(1819–1892), architect and building inspector * Ingrid Jespersen (1867–1938), pedagogue and school principal * Finn Thiesen (born 1941), linguist, iranist, and translator * Carsten Koch (born 1945), former MF and minister *

Lise-Lotte Rebel Lise-Lotte Rebel (born 23 January 1951) is a bishop of the Church of Denmark. Between 1995 and 2021, she served as the bishop of the Diocese of Helsingør in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark. She was the first woman to become a bishop ...

(born 1951), bishop and first woman bishop in the Church of Denmark *

Mads Tofte Mads Tofte (born 20 April 1959) is a Danish computer scientist who has contributed in particular to functional programming and the Standard ML programming language. Education Tofte was born in Lyngby, Denmark and grew up in Holbæk, Denmark. ...

(born 1959), computer scientist * Daniel Toft Jakobsen (born 1978), MF

Arts

* Elisa Marie Thornam (1857–1901), landscape painter and botanical illustrator * Olga Wagner (1873–1963), painter and sculptor * Dagmar Freuchen-Gale (1907–1991), illustrator, author and editor * Kasper Heiberg (1928–1984), painter and sculptor *

Nina Pens Rode Nina Pens Rode (22 May 1929 – 22 July 1992) was a Danish stage and film actress. She is best known for her performance in the title role in Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1964 film '' Gertrud''. Born Nina Pens as the daughter of Svend Thorkild Pen ...

(1929–1992), actress *

Hans Abrahamsen Hans Abrahamsen (born 23 December 1952) is a Danish composer born in Kongens Lyngby near Copenhagen. His ''Let me tell you (Abrahamsen), Let me tell you'' (2013), a song cycle for soprano and orchestra, was ranked by music critics at ''The Guard ...

(born 1952), composer *

Lars von Trier Lars von Trier (né Trier; born 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Beginning in the late-1960s as a child actor working on Danish television series ''Secret Summer'', von Trier's career has spanned more than five decad ...

(born 1956), film director and screenwriter *

Søs Fenger Charlotte Fenger (born 2 December 1961), known by the stage name Søs Fenger, is a Danish vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter. Since the mid 1980s she has been one of the most successful names in Danish music. She has released numerous albums, bot ...

(born 1961), musician

Sports

Sofus Rose Sofus Rose (10 April 1894 – 15 September 1974) was a Danish long-distance runner. He competed in the marathon at the 1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and comm ...

(1894–1974), long-distance runner *

Margot Bærentzen Margot Jeanne Olga Emilie Bærentzen (12 May 1907 – 16 October 1983) was a Danish fencer. She competed in the women's individual foil at the 1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the IX Olympiad (), ...

(1907–1983), fencer * Erling Stuer Lauridsen (1916–2012), wrestler * Johan Runge (1924–2005), weightlifter * Helge Hansen (1925–2008), cyclist * Ib Larsen (born 1945), rower *

Henrik Larsen Henrik Larsen (born 17 May 1966), nicknamed ''Store Larsen'' (''Big Larsen''), is a Danish Association football, football manager and former professional player who played as a midfielder. He was last the manager of Lyngby Boldklub. He was the ...

(born 1966), footballer and football manager *

Frederik Nielsen Frederik Løchte Nielsen (born 27 August 1983) is a Danish tennis coach and a former professional player. A Wimbledon men's doubles champion, he peaked at world No. 17 in the rankings in April 2013. Nielsen reached five other doubles finals ...

(born 1983), tennis player *

Nabil Aslam Mohammad Nabil Aslam (; born 3 August 1984) is a former professional footballer who played as a defender. Born in Denmark, he played for the Pakistan national team. A versatile defender, Aslam primarily played as centre back, although he also ...

(born 1984), footballer *

Jeanette Ottesen Jeanette Ottesen (born 30 December 1987) is a Danish competitive swimmer who participated at the 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. In total, she has won 50 international medals. Records She currently holds the Danish record in th ...

(born 1987), swimmer *

Mai Grage Mai Grage (born 18 April 1992) is a Danish former professional tennis player. She has a WTA career-high singles ranking of 861, achieved on 13 April 2015, and a WTA career-high doubles ranking of 988, set on 29 November 2010. Grage reached a j ...

(born 1992), tennis player * Jacob Bruun Larsen (born 1998), footballer * Christian Rasmussen (born 2003), footballer

References

External links

Source

Lygby Hovedgade
{{Authority control Municipal seats in the Capital Region of Denmark Municipal seats of Denmark Copenhagen metropolitan area Neighbourhoods in Denmark Cities and towns in the Capital Region of Denmark Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality