The Lehn House is a historic townhouse on Strandgade in the Christianshavn neighbourhood of central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is also known as the Tordenskjold House after Peter Jansen Wessel Tordenskiold commonly referred to as Tordenskjold, who for a while lived in the building. The Danish Authors' Society is now based in the property whose meeting facilities are also rented out for events. The rooms are notable for their lavish stucco ceilings and murals.
History
The first house at the site was probably built shortly after Christianshavn was established on reclaimed land in 1617-22. Abraham Lehn, a wealthy merchant, shipowner and director of Danish East Asia Company, replaced it with a new house in 1703.. Abraham Lehn's son Abraham Lehn Jr. was still a child when his father died in 1709 and the house was therefore rented out, Peter Tordenskjold, a friend of his, had his first home on land since his childhood on the first floor up until his early death in 1720. It has previously been believed that he resided in the small pavilion in the courtyard but this was not the case. Lehn Jr. made the house his family home in 1721. He later spent most of his time on Lolland where he became a major landowner after acquiring four estates in the period 1825 to 1820..
In 1732, Lehn sold the house in Strandgade to Christian Ditlev Reventlow, whose son, Christian Ditlev Frederik Reventlow, a key figure in the Danish agricultural reforms of the 1770s, was born in there in 1748, From 1755, the building served as headquarters for the Danish West India Company. In 1762, the property was purchased by Peter Fenger, another wealthy merchant, who established a soap manufactury in the yard in 1770. In about 1850, the house was purchased by Peter F Heering, who already owned the Heering House close by and had acquired the quay in front of the building from Lehn in 1725. In 1983, the Danish Authors' Society rented the ground floor of the main wing. In 1993, they acquired their premises as well as part of the basement.
Architecture
The original Baroque-style house was only two storeys high but it was extended to three storeys and adapted in the Late Neoclassicalstyle in 1857-58. The half-timbered side wing was originally only one storey high but later extended with an extra floor. The Danish Authors' Society's premises in the ground floor are decorated with murals from 1705 by Hendrik Krock featuring subjects from the Old Testament and mythology. The stucco ceilings also date from this time. In the courtyard to the rear of the building is a small pavilion known as Tordenskjold's Pavilion. It dates from 1763.
