page_title: Gentofte
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Gentofte / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail from drawing of Copenhagen, Denmark
context_page_description: Gentofte is a district of Gentofte Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Major landmarks include Gentofte Town Hall, Gentofte Hospital and Gentofte Church. Gentofte Lake with surrounding parkland and nature reserves form the most important greenspace.
context_section_description: The area around Gentofte Lake has been inhabited since the Stone Age. The name Gentofte is first seen in a gift letter from Absalon to the Bishop of Roskilde from 1186. The gift comprises extensive parts of what is now Copenhagen, including "...mansionem de Gefnetofte cum omnibus pertenentiis suis" (Fentofte House with all its land). Gentofte is most likely considerably older since place names with the suffix -tofte have usually emerged during the 9th century.
  The area was confiscated by the crown during the Reformation. It was placed under Ibstrup Ladegård which was renamed Jægersborg by Christian V.  Tax records show that Gentofte had approximately 450 residents in 1645. In 1685 the village consisted of 19 farms. One of them (probably Gentoftegård) had been given to Queen Charlotte Amalie as a wedding present. A "cavalry school", the first of its kind in Denmark, opened in 1720.
  The entire area was acquired by Foreign Minister Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff in 1752 and his new Bernstorff Palace was completed in 1765. Bernstorffsvej, a new road linking Lyngby Kongevej with the palace, opened in 1770.
  Bernstorff was a driving force behind the agricultural reforms of the 1780s and the farmers were there the first in Denmark to get to own their own land. Most of the farms were moved out of the village to be closer to their land.
  A parish council was established in 1842. The opening of the railway to Lyngby in 1863 resulted in increased population growth in Gentofte. In the 1870s, the population increased from 4,158 to 5,106
   
  In 1887, Carl Ludvig Ibsen began to acquire land in the Gentoffte-Gellerup area. His plan was to sell it off in lots to developers and private citizens. He purchased Smakkegård, Rygård, Lundegård and Stengård in Gentofte. In 1916, Ibsen placed his remaining land in a company, A/S De Ibsenske Grunde i Gjentofte Sogn, which existed until 1945.
  A telephone central opened on 14 August 1899. Gentoftegade was connected to Kildegårdsvej in 1906 and a tramway began to operate on the route in 1907.
caption: Franz Šedivý: Gentofte Main Street in 1929
exif: {}