Frieboes Hvile (Frieboe's Retreat)

Marker 20.

Lyngby
Frieboeshvile was built between 1756-58 by the Copenhagen pharmacist August Günther. His initials AG are still on the facade above the door and inside on the first floor, at the ceiling above the middle window towards Kongevejen. The architect is unknown, but there is great similarity to the facade of the old pharmacy in Kalundborg, attributed to Philip de Lange.

The house was built in the rococo style, which is seen both on the facade (the high attic, however, point back to the Baroque) and inside the ceilings of the asymmetric stucco decorations, known as rocaille, which has given the style name. The architecture is however, also characterized by symmetry around a central axis.

Until 1846 the house and garden was called "the wilderness". But in 1782 it was bought by the merchant Andreas Bodenhoff. When his daughter Gjertrud Cathrine in 1795 married Captain Frederick Caspar Conrad Frieboe, the country house was part of her dowry.

Frieboe was an cavallery officer and later became the General of the cavallery. Therefore a photographic copy of a painting from the cavallery still hangs at the painting's original place in "the General's room" in Frieboeshvile (photo).

Gjertrud Cathrine Frieboe died in 1814 and was buried in a private tomb in the park. Frieboe died in 1846 and was buried with his wife. He had no children, and the property went to his sister's son, Lt. Col. FCC Funch and his descendants. The family owned Frieboeshvile till 1953 and occupied it until 1966.

Lyngby-Taarbęk bought Frieboeshvile in 1953 and took possession of it in 1966. In 1977 the main building was thoroughly renovated. The neo-classical interiors from Frieboes ownership was restored and the building got a new roof made of glazed black tiles instead of the old slate roof. Originally, the house had a roof of wood shavings. The interior of the mail building has been restored to "the general's time" around 1810, and is furnished with furniture from his time. It is now used for the city archives and for exhibitions and lectures, and Lyngby-Taarbęk uses the building for various official events.

The side building was originally a horse stable, but was rebuilt for residential use in 1925. The most famous resident was undoubtedly the later West German ambassador in Denmark Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, who lived here in the year 1941-53.

GF Duckwitz was a merchant and worked in Denmark for a coffee importing company in Hamburg, when the occupation came in 1940. As a German citizen Duckwitz had to work for the occupation, but he had no sympathy for Nazism. He was a personal friend of both the German political leader in Denmark, Werner Best and the governing Social Democratic politicians Hans Hedtoft and Hans Hansen. Therefore, in 1943 he knew that the Germans would make a deportation of Danish Jews, and by communicating this information to his Danish friends he warned the Danish Jews and most of them were rescued to safety in Sweden.

He died in 1972, and in 1979 was on Frieboeshvile erected a plaque for his efforts in the Danish Jews.

Frieboeshvile is surrounded by a beautiful park that has retained some traits from General Frieboes time. In addition to the grave site, here is a cave from which there has been a slope to a now collapsed fruit cellar. A former aviary is rebuilt as a pavilion. Most of the land is leased out to the plant nursery Lyngby Planteland, which also uses the building on the west side of the courtyard as an office and coffee room for the staff.

Lyngby Taarbęk City Archives are housed in Frieboeshvile and has a reading room, offices as well as storage rooms in the side building. The City Archives carries out preservation and archiving of municipal administration records, but also serves as the municipality's local historical archives and museum. Further there is a permanent exhibition on local history, and also always a special exhibition, at the first floor. In the main building's basement, the archeology club Flękken has its premises. Findings from the club's many excavations in the local area can be seen in the permanent exhibition on the ground floor. Also the Historic topographic Society of Lyngby-Taarbęk is housed at Frieboeshvile.

Marker 1

In Danish