Nyhavn: The Real History

Who dug it

Prisoners. Swedish prisoners of war from the Scanian War cut the canal between 1670 and 1673 under Christian V, so that grain ships could unload at the market on Kongens Nytorv instead of somewhere less convenient. The most photographed hundred metres in Scandinavia is a piece of forced labour with a commercial purpose, and that is the first thing worth knowing before the coloured houses go on your camera roll.

What it was for three centuries

A sailors' quarter, and not a picturesque one. Pubs, brothels and tattoo parlours, working port traffic, and a reputation that Copenhageners did not romanticise at the time. Commercial shipping stopped in 1967 and the transformation into restaurant frontage got going in the 1980s. The gap between what the street was and what it sells is wider here than anywhere else in the city.

One story we will not tell you

That press gangs operated in Nyhavn. It gets repeated on walking tours and we have found nothing to support it, so it is not on this site. Hans Christian Andersen, by contrast, is documented: he lived at no. 20 from 1834 to 1838, at no. 67 from 1848 to 1865 and at no. 18 from 1871 to 1874, and he published his first fairy tales while at no. 20 in 1835 — see the Andersen page.

Walking it

The English guided ghost walk ends at Kongens Nytorv, beside Nyhavn, after an hour and a half from Nytorv. The self-guided Amalienborg murder mystery runs through Nyhavn as part of its route, from the Pier by way of the Aleksander Nevskij Church, Skt Annæ Plads and the Odd Fellow's Mansion to Lille Sandstræde. See the Amalienborg hunt and where the walks start.

Frequently asked questions