The Collin House (Danish: Den Collinske Gård) is a listed Neoclassical property at Amaliegade No. 9 in the Frederiksstaden district of central Copenhagen, Denmark. It takes its name after Jonas Collin, a prominent civil servant and leading patrons of the arts during the Danish Golden Age, who owned the building from 1838 to 1861. He was a close friend and loyal supporter of Hans Christian Andersen who often visited the house.
History
Early history
No. 422 seen on a detail from Christian Gedde's map of St. Ann's Rast Quarter, 1757.
The house was built for chair maker Peder Svendsen in 1752. In the new cadastre of 1756, it was listed as No. 71 V. It was owned at that time by a brewer named Lauritz Jørgensen.[1] On Christian Gedde's map of St. Ann's East Quarter from 1757, it was marked as No. 311.
In the new cadastre of 1806, the property was listed as No. 155 in St. Ann's East Quarter. It had been acquired by the physician and surgeon Heinrich Callisen [da] by that time. He has been described as the "father of surgery" in Denmark.[2]
The property had been acquired by 1787 by the surgeon Henrich Callesen in the Royal Danish Navy. He lived there with his wife Maria Amalia née Walker, their four children (aged four to nine), a daughter from his first marriage (aged 14), his first wife's sister Juliane Marie Braun, two maids, a female cook, a coachman and two lodgers.[3]
Collin family
Hans Christian Andersen smoking a cigar in the garden behind the house, photographed by Theodor Collin in 1972
Rear side of the buildingThe building to the rear of the main building
The house consists of three floors and is seven bays wide. It is pulled back from the street and thus breaks fundamentally with Nicolai Eigtved's strict guidelines for the architecture of Amaliegade and Frederiksstaden. The authorities long hoped to see a new building at the site that filled out the hole in the row of houses and therefore rejected an application from the owner to build a fence on the street in 1768. The fence seen today was built in connection with a renovation of the house where the three-bay wall dormer seen today replaced a triangular pediment dating from when the house was built.[1]
An arched gateway opens to a narrow, cobbled yard. A small building at the far end of the courtyard is also listed.
Today
The building fronting the street contains an apartment on each floor. NoriDane Foods, a Nortura-owned meat trading company, is based in the rear wing (No. 9B).
