Architecture
A home full of soul
Like a breath of fresh air in the middle of the vibrant Carlsberg City, you will find Carl Jacobsen's Garden with the adjacent villa, where the brewer lived with his wife Ottilia from 1892. A home and garden packed with details, art, and atmosphere in the spirit of its former residents.
Carl Jacobsen's Villa
Carl (1842-1914) and Ottilia Jacobsen f. Stegmann’s (1854-1903) home. Carl Jacobsen was the son of Carlsberg's founder J.C. Jacobsen (1811-1887). The couple married in 1874 and moved into Bakkegården in 1880. They had eight children, four of whom died in infancy within a short time of each other. In 1890, it was decided that Bakkegården should be demolished and architect Hack Kampmann was commissioned to design the new home. The new villa was completed in 1892, and was used as a private home till 1998.
The villa has many details. In 1881, Carl Jacobsen registered a swastika as a trademark for his brewery Ny Carlsberg. Swastika is a compound word and means “that which brings good luck”. Carlsberg stopped using the swastika in 1945.
There are also details testifying to Ottilia’s influence on the villa. Ottilia Jacobsen was born and raised in Scotland and you can find several references to the thistle, the Scottish national flower, on the building.
Memorial for Ottilia Jacobsen
After the death of Ottilia Jacobsen (1854-1903), Carl Jacobsen (1842-1914) commissioned 29 works of art in memory of his wife. A pelican pecking its chest and feeding its young with its blood was often used to symbolize self-sacrifice. The memorial was designed by Hack Kampmann and the bronze statue is by Paul Dubois.
Bronze bust of Vagn Jacobsen
Vagn Jacobsen (1884-1931) was the son of Carl and Ottilia Jacobsen. He founded the Carlsberg Museum, which opened in 1916. The bronze bust by Axel Locher was unveiled in September 1934. The museum was to show the development of the Carlsberg Breweries and the two people behind it, Vagn Jacobsen's grandfather, J.C. Jacobsen (1811-1887) and father, Carl Jacobsen. It was in the same buildings that the first Glyptotek was located when it opened in 1882, before the collections were moved to the current location at Tivoli Gardens which opened in 1897.
The thorn puller
The Thorn Puller, also known as “Spinario”. It depicts a boy pulling a thorn out of his foot. The original is in the Capitoline Museums (Musei Capitolini) in Rome. Stylistically, the sculpture is a mixture of Hellenistic features, among other things.
San Ildefonso Group
This is a bronze copy of a marble statue group called the San Ildefonso Group, located in the Prado Museum (Museo Nacional del Prado) in Madrid. The statue group in the Prado Museum is dated to around the 1st century BC, around the time of Augustus.
The ice house
Before the modern refrigerator became a staple in Danish homes, ice houses and ice cabinets were used to keep food cold. In winter, large blocks of ice were cut from frozen lakes and stored in well-insulated ice houses. The ice blocks were then used in the kitchen ice cabinet where they helped keep the food fresh.
The ice house in the garden was designed by architect Hack Kampmann, who was responsible for several of Carl Jacobsen's buildings.
The sculptures in the backyard
Carl Jacobsen was an art collector and founded the Glyptotek in Copenhagen together with his wife, Ottilia Jacobsen. He was enthusiastic about sculptures and this enthusiasm can also be seen here in the backyard, where 11 terracotta statues adorn the area. The statues, which are copies of classic marble sculptures, were commissioned by Carl Jacobsen - probably in the 1880s from the Wienerberger company in Vienna.
The gate tower
The gate tower was built in 1905 and from here a guard could keep an eye on the entrance to Carl Jacobsen's Villa and monitor traffic on Ny Carlsberg Vej. The tower was designed by architect Hack Kampmann.
Later, the guards in the tower were given a new task: distributing surplus yeast from Carlsberg's beer production to Copenhageners - a tradition that continued until 1988. This practice originally began in the yeast cellars, where “yeast customers” were particularly interested in the yeast due to its high content of B vitamins. The distribution of yeast was the reason why the tower also became known as the “Yeast Tower”.
At the top of the tower are sandstone reliefs decorated with hop and flower petals along with the monogram of Carl and Ottilia Jacobsen and Hack Kampmann's initials. 1905 marks the year the tower was built.
Venetian House
The architect Hack Kampmann designed the Venetian House based on an Italian model. The building was originally intended as a tea house, but was rarely used for this purpose due to its position in relation to the sun and the inconvenient distance to the villa. Architecturally, however, the building was of great importance as it is a beautiful focal point at the end of the axis that extends from the villa's terrace.
The deer in front of the building are copies of two bronze deer discovered in a Roman villa in ancient Herculaneum.