The Carlsberg Foundation's headquarter
Published:
15.03.2024
Since 24 March 1899, the Carlsberg Foundation and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters have had their headquarters in a mansion built and owned by the Carlsberg Foundation at 35 H.C. Andersens Boulevard in Copenhagen.
Before his death on 30 April 1887, brewer J.C. Jacobsen, founder of the Carlsberg Foundation, expressed his desire for the foundation to provide a home for the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
At that time, neither the foundation nor the academy had their own premises. The administrative functions were scattered all over Copenhagen, and the foundation’s board members took turns hosting meetings.
When the academy celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1892, the Chairman of the Carlsberg Foundation, Edvard Holm, proposed in his speech that the foundation should fulfil J.C. Jacobsen’s wish that a home be built for the foundation where suitable premises could also be made available to the academy.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Interior from the inside of the building.
Vilhelm Petersen – the architect behind the headquarters
Edvard Holm had an interest in research into Antiquity and wanted a building in a Renaissance or Antique style. The building should be large enough to house the foundation’s board of directors, a bursary, a brewery office and a residence for the Chairman. The academy should be provided with a meeting room, classrooms and offices.
Professor and building inspector Vilhelm Petersen was hired as the architect for the project. Petersen had undertaken lengthy study trips to Italy in the 1860s and mastered the Classical idiom.
Petersen helped choose as the site for the new building the undeveloped plot of land opposite the Glyptotek in Copenhagen with the address 35 Vestre Boulevard (now 35 H.C. Andersens Boulevard).
The Old Meeting Room on the first floor is arranged so that members of the Royal Danish Academy’s two classes – natural sciences and humanities – sit on opposite sides of the room.
On the wall, you can see P.S. Krøyer’s large painting, the monumental group portrait A Meeting of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (1897).
On the ceiling, you can see Kræsten Iversen’s image from the tales of Prometheus as a symbol of the scientific quest.
After a five-year construction period, the academy held its first meeting in the new building on 24 March 1899, attended by the academy’s patron, King Christian IX.
In 1976, the Carlsberg Foundation's 100th anniversary, the building was enlarged with a lecture hall for the academy on the third floor in the former attic.
The building today
Today, the Carlsberg Foundation’s has its secretariat and a meeting room on the ground floor of the building. On the first floor is the Old Meeting Room, where the academy’s meetings are held, classrooms for the natural sciences and humanities classes, and a library.
On the second floor, the academy has its secretariat, offices and archives. On the third floor is the lecture hall, which is also used for receptions and other gatherings.