The Levin House ( Danish: Levins Gård or Levins Hus) is a

Historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying the process or history by which they came about. The term is widely used in philosophy, ant ...

property located on

Gammelholm Gammelholm () 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 centuries, the area ...

Havnegade Havnegade is a waterfront promenade in central Copenhagen, Denmark, which runs along the Inner Harbour, Copenhagen, Inner Harbour between Knippelsbro and the mouth of the Nyhavn canal. Most of the street is lined with buildings from the 1860s and ...

waterfront in central

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 ...

. Designed by

Johan Daniel Herholdt Johan Daniel Herholdt (13 August 1818 – 11 April 1902) was a Danish architect, professor and royal building inspector. He worked in the Historicist style and had a significant influence on Danish architecture during the second half of the 19th ...

and completed in 1866, it is one of the first buildings that was completed after the former Naval dockyard came under redevelopment in the 1860s. The building is today owned by the Karberghus company and occupied by a law firm. It was listed in 1978.

History

19th century

In 1859 the

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

decommissioned their last operations at

, and the area was designated for residential redevelopment. The city's initial plan was to reserve it for large villas in an attempt to keep wealthy tax-payers within the municipal borders since they were increasingly settling in

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the region of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of less tha ...

or in the northern suburbs. The grocer and bankier Martin Levin bought a lot on the waterfront and charged the architect

with designing a house which was built in 1865–66. Due to the difficult economic times that followed from Denmark's involvement in the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War (; or German Danish War), 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. The war began on 1 Februar ...

, it was the only detached single-family house-with-garden that was built in the area. Gammelholm was instead built over with apartment buildings according to a master plan created by

Ferdinand Meldahl Ferdinand Meldahl (16 March 1827 – 3 February 1908) was a Danish architect best known for the reconstruction of Frederiksborg Castle after the fire in 1859. Meldahl was one of the leading proponents of historicism in Denmark. Biography He was t ...

. An expansion of the house incorporated it into the block structure of the new plan.

20th century

The Levin House was purchased by the grocer and

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist, researcher, and/or well-informed collector of numismatics, numismatics/coins ("of coins"; from Late Latin , genitive of ). Numismatists can include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholar-researchers who use coi ...

Lars Emil Bruun in 1900. In 1922, it was acquired by

Danish Distillers Danish Distillers ( known as ) is a company that was headquartered in Aalborg, Denmark. Isidor Henius, the father of Max Henius, was one of the founders of a company that was acquired by Danish Distillers, which ended up owning all Danish spirit ...

. The company was headquartered in the building until 1968. It was then owned by the Workers' Cooperative Housing Association (Arbejdernes Andels Boligforening, AAB) until 2011 when it was acquired by the private property investment company Karberghus. The property was later sold to Boligforeningen AAB. In 2011, AAB sold it to Karberghus.

Architecture

The Levin House is designed in the

style with influence from

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...

and consists of two stories with a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

over a high cellar. The original villa consisted of four bays facing Havnegade and two bays facing Tordenskjoldsgade. The extension which integrated it into the block structure added three bays facing the water and two bays on Tordenskjoldsgade, where a gate separates the property from the neighboring, five-story apartment building. The diagonally cut-off corner features a canted

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

topped by a balcony and with Corinthian

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s flanking the windows on the second floor. There is rustication on the high cellar and at the corners. The interior of the building originally featured decorative paintings on walls and ceilings by

Georg Hilker Georg Hilker (5 June 1807 – 13 January 1875) was a Danish decorative painter active during the Danish Golden Age in the first half of the 19th century. He collaborated with painter Constantin Hansen (1804–1880). Early life and career Hi ...

, but they have been lost.

Today

The building is owned by the Karberghus property company. The tenant is the law firm Husen Advokater.

References

External links

Architectural renderings
from Copenhagen Coty Archives
Levin family
{{Johan Daniel Herholdt 1866 establishments in Denmark Gammelholm Houses completed in 1866 Houses in Copenhagen