The building is known as Christian IV’s Brewery but was originally part of Copenhagen’s fortifications, which Christian IV modernized around 1608. The coastline at Slotsholmen was a weak point in the city’s defences and so the King had a strong corner bastion built on the site where the brewery is situated today. The enormous walls, an open platform at the very top as well as parapets and arrow slits would keep the enemy at a distance.
But only eight years later, the building lost its importance as a military construction. Christian IV had then built Christianshavn with the new district’s advanced chain of ramparts and bastions. The King ordered the bastion to be put into use as a brewery, where beer was to be brewed for the military. For this purpose, a high roof frame was added to the building, with pointed gables and a slated roof over the strong substructure.
The Fires
In 1632, the brewery went up in flames. It is not known how much damage the fire caused but the building was rebuilt in 1635-36. In the following years, the building was developed into a fully expanded brewery with copper boilers, filling vessels, hops vats and floors of brick and cobblestone.
The brewery did regain its military importance for a short while during the Swedish siege of Copenhagen in 1658-60. One of the attacks on the city took place right at the Brewery. With its enormous walls and its strategic location close to Christian IV’s naval harbour where the Royal Library Gardens are situated today, the building was to form the starting point for the defence of the capital city. During the siege of the city, however, the building also fulfilled its main function: it supplied the navy, garrison and court with beer.
On the night of 7 and 8 May 1767, the building was again ravaged by an extensive fire. The building’s thick outer walls remained, along with remnants of the upper walls. The roof construction and part of the arches did not survive the fire, which brought an end to the building’s history as a brewery.
In the following years, the building was rebuilt and acquired its present appearance. After this, the building served as a warehouse for more than 200 years, first for the Brewers’ Guild and the Admiralty, and then for the Civil Service and most recently for the Royal Danish Arsenal Museum right up until 1998. Since then the building has been empty. In 2001, responsibility for Christian IV’s Brewery passed from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to the Palaces and Properties Agency.
In these years, the large brewery with its 8,000 m2 of floor space is undergoing fireproofing, with funding from TrygFonden, so that the building can be opened for public purposes.
Last updated:: Friday, February 20, 2009
