The Plessen family constructed a town mansion at the site in the 18th century. The Plassen Mansion was a two-storey Baroque style building. The building was later known as the Knuthske Hotel. In 1779 it was acquired by a merchant named Lycke. It was later purchased by Caspar Peter Bügel. The next owner, Jens Lund, another merchant, constructed a couple of warehouses around the corner in Ny Vestergade. A free mason's lodge, Zorobabel af Nordstjernen, was based in the building in the 1790s. In the middle of the 19th century it had fallen into despair
The new building
The neglected building was acquired by Alphonse Cassabadan who had recently retired from his position as head chef for king Christian VIII. Cassabadan commissioned the architect Harald Conrad Stilling to redevelop the site into two separate apartment buildings in 1851-1852. Stilling added two extra floors. Cassabadan also established a tavern in the basement of No. 18. The theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig and ballet masterAugust Bournonville both lived in the building from 1852 to 1855. Count H. A. Reventlow-Criminil was also a resident in No. 16 in 1853. George Quaade, who had been appointed to Minister of Education on 1 July 1864, lived at No. 18 in 1865. The publisher and Venstre politician Christen Berg, lived in the ground floor of No. 18 in 1885-1886. The writer and educator Johan Krohn from 1875 to 1879.
Rudolph Christiansen at No. 18
Nr. 18 was acquired by the grocer Rudolph Christensen in 1886. He was the joint owner of the ribbon factory Christensen og Hansen. The company had a shop on Østergade. Christensen undertook a major renovation of the building. The Christensen family's own home, a 15-room apartment, was located on the second floor. The two daughters Gerda and Ellen Christensen lived in the apartment until 1963 and left it with all its furnishings to the National Museum of Denmark.
Recent history
The building was listed on the Danish registry of protected buildings and places by the Danish Heritage Agency on 6 April 1969.
Architecture
Rach building consists of four storeys over a high cellar and a Mansard roof. They are six bays wide. Both buildings have a balcony at each of the outer bays on the first floor and No. 16 has an additional balcony in front of the two central bays on the top floor. The interior of the two gateways are decorated with a copy of Bertel Thorvaldsen's Alexander frieze. The 35-metre-long and one-metre-tall relief frieze was originally commissioned for the popal Palazzo del Quirinale in 1912 in connection with Napoleon's planned visit to the city. It was completed in just three months. The walls of the staircase at No. 18 are richly decorated with murals created for Rudolph Christensen in the 1890s by C.W. Juulmann & Søn in Nørregade. The decorations include imitated marble panels and sandstone pilasters and painted ornaments. The landings feature murals of landscapes and houses. One of them is of the Christensens family's first country house at Jægersborg Allé.
Today
The Attorney general is based at No. 16. The Christensen family's 15-room apartment, now known as the Victorian Home, can only be visited on guided tours. Guided tours in English are available on Saturdays at 14:00 from June through September.
