Nyboder Mindestuer – Memorial Rooms

Historic naval home preserving four centuries of Danish maritime family life in a single yellow row house.

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Step into one of Nyboder's oldest surviving houses, built around 1635 for Danish naval personnel. Located at Sankt Pauls Gade 24, the Nyboder Mindestuer (Memorial Rooms) preserves the intimate domestic life of sailors and their families across four centuries. This modest row house, with its distinctive yellow exterior, opens on Sundays to reveal period furnishings, personal artifacts, and the tight-knit community that defined this historic naval quarter.

A brief summary to Nyboder

Sankt Pauls Gade 24, København K, København K, 1313, DK
Visit website
Duration: 0.5 to 1.5 hours
Free
Indoor
Mobile reception: 5 out of 5

Sunday 11 am-2 pm

Local tips

Visit on Sunday mornings between 11 AM and 2 PM—these are the only hours the Memorial Rooms are open to the public. Arrive early to avoid crowds and allow time to absorb the intimate domestic spaces.
Explore the surrounding streets of Nyboder on foot. The neighborhood's narrow lanes, named after flowers and herbs, reveal the full context of this naval quarter and offer excellent photography from multiple angles.
Stand at the junction of Store Kongensgade and Hammerensgade, near the Edouard Suenson memorial, for one of the best panoramic views of Nyboder's distinctive yellow row houses.
Note the single-story terrace at Sankt Pauls Gade—it is the only surviving structure from Nyboder's original 1630s construction, making it architecturally significant beyond the museum itself.

Getting There

Metro + Walking

Take the Copenhagen Metro Line M1 or M2 toward Vanløse or Christianshavn. Exit at Kongens Nytorv station (approximately 5 minutes travel from central Copenhagen). From the station, walk northeast through Nyhavn area and continue toward Nyboder, approximately 12–15 minutes on foot. Follow signage toward Sankt Pauls Gade. No entrance fee required for the neighborhood; the museum itself is free but donations are welcome.
Bus

Several bus routes serve the Nyboder area, including routes 1A, 15, and 66. Board from central Copenhagen and travel toward the Nyboder stop near Sankt Pauls Gade, approximately 10–20 minutes depending on traffic and starting point. Single journey ticket costs approximately 24 DKK (3–4 EUR). Buses run frequently throughout the day.
Bicycle

Copenhagen's extensive cycle network makes cycling to Nyboder practical and popular. Rent a bike from one of many rental stations throughout the city (approximately 80 DKK per day or 30 DKK per hour). Travel time from Nyhavn or central areas is 5–10 minutes. Nyboder has secure bicycle parking throughout the neighborhood.
Walking from Nyhavn

If staying near Nyhavn or Kongens Nytorv, Nyboder is accessible on foot in approximately 15–20 minutes. Walk north from Nyhavn along Nyhavnsgade, then continue northeast toward the neighborhood. The walk is flat and passes through pleasant residential areas. No parking concerns as a pedestrian.

Nyboder location weather suitability

Any Weather

Discover more about Nyboder

A Sailor's Home from Denmark's Golden Age

Nyboder Mindestuer occupies one of the very first houses constructed in the Nyboder district, dating to around 1635. It stands as a rare survivor from King Christian IV's original vision—a purpose-built neighborhood for the rapidly expanding Royal Danish Navy. While most of the original single-story structures were demolished and rebuilt over subsequent centuries, this house at Sankt Pauls Gade 24 endures as a tangible link to the early decades of naval settlement. The building's yellow-painted wooden facade, now iconic to Nyboder's identity, represents the distinctive aesthetic that emerged as the neighborhood evolved.

The Context of Christian IV's Naval Vision

Christian IV (1588–1648) established Nyboder in 1631 to address a fundamental military need. Denmark's navy had grown from 22 vessels to 60 under his reign, and the shift from seasonal levies to a permanent standing force required permanent housing. The king personally oversaw the development, working with master builders Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger and Leonhard Blasius to create a self-contained community. From its inception, Nyboder was privileged: residents enjoyed access to a private hospital, private schools, and their own police force—amenities rare for working-class housing in the 17th century. In exchange, male residents committed to military service for up to 20 years.

Life Within These Walls

The Memorial Rooms document the everyday reality of naval families confined to remarkably small spaces. Original apartments measured just 40 square meters, later subdivided to accommodate growing demand. Families lived in a living room and small bedroom, with a kitchen that was essentially an expanded corridor shared between two households. Sanitation facilities—wooden outhouses in the yard—were communal. Despite these constraints, Nyboder fostered extraordinary social cohesion. Generations of families intermarried, creating stable kinship networks that persisted for centuries. The family association Enigheden, established in 1862, formalized these bonds as a savings and loan institution, reflecting the deep interdependence that characterized the community.

Hardship and Transformation Across Centuries

The 17th and 18th centuries brought severe hardship. During periods of financial crisis, sailors received no wages, forcing widespread begging. Children worked outside Nyboder rather than attending school. A catastrophic gunpowder explosion in 1658 devastated the neighborhood, destroying or damaging numerous houses and killing many residents. Conditions improved markedly in the 19th and 20th centuries, when Nyboder became celebrated in Danish literature and folklore. Hans Christian Andersen drew inspiration from the neighborhood for his fairy tale "The Elder-Tree Mother," capturing the nostalgia and resilience of aging sailors reflecting on their youth.

Architectural Evolution and Preservation

The Nyboder visible today reflects multiple building campaigns. While Christian IV's original rows were completed around 1641, the neighborhood underwent substantial expansion from 1757 onward. Philip de Lange designed 24 two-story houses in 1756, establishing a template that guided later construction. Between 1781 and 1796, approximately 150 additional houses were built. The single-story terrace at Sankt Pauls Gade, which includes the Mindestuer, represents the sole surviving remnant of the earliest phase. A nearby two-story section, the Factory Master's House, documents an 1817 expansion. The Grey Rows, constructed 1886–1893 to designs by Olaf Schmidth, introduced working-class housing ideals of the late 19th century.

Museum and Living Community

Today, Nyboder remains a functioning residential neighborhood, still home to enlisted members of the Danish Navy, Army, and Air Force, alongside civilians welcomed since 2006. The Mindestuer preserves period furnishings and personal objects that illuminate domestic life across generations. Opening only on Sunday mornings, the museum maintains an intimate, domestic character rather than adopting institutional formality. Visitors encounter the actual spaces where families cooked, slept, and raised children, their modest scale underscoring both the constraints and the community bonds that sustained life in this historic quarter.