page_title: Harsdorff House
section_title: Background and construction
hierarchical_section_title: Harsdorff House / History / Background and construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Charlottenborg on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen, Denmark. The gate to Bremerholm is seen to the right.
context_page_description: The Harsdorff House is a historic property located on Kongens Nytorv in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built by Caspar Frederik Harsdorff in 1780 and was in the same time to serve as inspiration for the many uneducated master builders of the time. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was based in the building from 1864 to 1823.
context_section_description: Caspar Frederik Harsdorff (1735–1799) became professor of perspective at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1766. In 1770 he succeeded Nicolas-Henri Jardin  (1720–1799) as royal building master and the following year he took over his residence in the south wing of Charlottenborg Palace. The Royal Academy's secretary, Christian Æmilius Biehl, had a residence next to the palace. His daughter, Charlotte Dorothea Biehl (1731–1788) spend some of her childhood in the building. After Biehl's death the building was designated for demolition and Harsdorff was consulted on the matter. He proposed that the site was given to him and he would build a house which could serve as inspiration for the builders of the increasing number of bourgeois houses in the city. 
  Architects who had studied at the Academy were in general only used by the state and members of the aristocracy. The king accepted the offer. Construction began in 1779 and was completed in 1780. The building was never actually used by Harsdorff personally.
caption: The small buildings located next to Charlottenborg seen on a drawing from the middle of the 18th century
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