Proviantgården or Provianthuset is a historic building on

Slotsholmen Slotsholmen (English language, English: The Castle Islet) is an island in the harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark, and part of Copenhagen Indre By, Inner City. The name is taken from the successive castles and palaces located on the island since Absal ...

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 ...

. The building was originally constructed in the early 1600s as part of a

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 ...

's naval harbor project. Its name, ''Proviantgården'' (English: ''provisions yard''), is in reference to its initial role as a provisions depot. Today, the building is used by

Folketinget The Folketing ( , ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral List of legislatures by country, national legislature (parliament) of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark — Denmark proper to ...

's administration, housing offices for MPs as well as the Copenhagen reading rooms of the

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

History

In the 1590s, Christian IV began building a new naval harbor on Slotsholmen. Proviantgården was constructed by the builder Bernt Pejtersen around 1605. The building was meant to furnish the king's ships with provisions when they came into the harbor. As such Holmen's grainstores were transferred to the building after it was completed. The building has been damaged by three different fires, in 1626, 1719, and most recently in 1992. After a fire ravaged the building in 1626, the

quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land army, armies, a quartermaster is an officer who supervises military logistics, logistics and requisitions, manages stores or barracks, and distri ...

who oversaw the building issued a

promissory note A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...

to the king worth 2,000 sletdaler to be used for the timber to reconstruct the building. Because he made this payment to the king, it is believed that the quartermaster was to blame for the fire, though there is no record that he was prosecuted. The naval dock was decommissioned and subsequently filled in during the 1860s.

Architecture

Of the original building, only the robust brick walls, which are more than two meters thick, survive. The building is 163 metres long and two storeys high. A passageway, ''Proviantpassagen'', runs between the west side of the building and the wall that surrounds the Royal Library Garden, linking Rigsdagsgården with the Christians Brygge waterfront. The building is listed as a historic monument.

Gallery

File:Proviantgaarden Dt015171.jpg, Depiction of the building as a supplies building c. 1749. File:Tøjhushavnen and Proviantgården (Chr. Hetsch).jpg, Depiction of Tøjhus Dock with Proviantgården.

Christian Hetsch 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 ...

, c. 1850. File:Bibliotekshaven - Proviantgården.jpg, The building as seen from the Royal Library Garden, 2016.

References

Listed government buildings in Copenhagen Renaissance architecture in Copenhagen Slotsholmen {{Denmark-struct-stub