Nikolaj Plads 23 - 23 Nikolaj Plads, 1067, Denmark

Operated by Karberghus

About this space

On the edge of the Dybet & Mayonnaise quarter After the city's second great fire in 1795, a large number of new residential properties were built in the inner city, many based on the Harsdorff model. Architect and builder HC Schmidt's corner house built for joiner Johan Pengel is one of a kind; an example of a toned-down classicism, where order and symmetry are modestly embellished with antique means such as cordon and rafter cornices and roofing and 'sheds' around entrances. The slanted corner is due to the period's new fire regulations; in the shadow of the big fire, streets and alleys should in future be wider and corners should be 'broken', so that firefighters and equipment could reach without difficulty, should the accident be over. In the house's younger days, the residents could follow the colorful life on Nikolaj Plads from the windows; only the church tower remained after the fire and was used for a number of years as a fire station, and the square belonged to the town's butchers, who sold their wares from stalls, which on hot summer days did not smell very sweet. Hence the square's other popular name, 'Maven'. If you dared to walk along Nikolajgade, then called Skvaldergade after the sailors' chatter on the street's benches, you soon reached the easy-living ladies in the city's 'whorehouses'.