Hornbæk’s unique landmark

If you pass what is now Hornbæk Hospital, you might wonder what the weird additional structure on the roof is.

Here, you can see a green, verdigris-covered oblong tower that does not at first seem to fit in. It was designed by the famous architect Ole Falkentorp (18th February 1886 – 21st August 1948). Many of his buildings still stand out in the Copenhagen city scene.

Ole Falkentorp was the son of architect, professor and royal housing inspector Albert Jensen, who was a leading figure at Kunstakademiet (The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts). One would think that Ole Falkentorp would follow in his father’s footsteps – but no! He highly disagreed with his father, whom he thought was deeply decadent in his architectural style. Instead, he chose to take his point of departure in neoclassicism and functionalism.

Ole Falkentorp had big ideas for what was to be built in Hornbæk. Among other things, he had drawn a replica of the Olympic swimming stadium in Berlin, which should be built in Hornbæk to extend the tourist season in the area. But it was never built as World War II was looming in the horizon.

The canopy at the hospital in Hornbæk was designed with the purpose of giving a convincing representation of something maritime for the building. This leads us back to the time before the building was used as a hospital; back when it was a seaside hotel.

The seaside hotel was built in 1935 and has changed both its purpose and its name several times since then. It was a noble and impressive hotel with 81 suites and was mentioned in many places as one of the grandest in Denmark: People converged to it. Especially when the Hornbæk Revue was performed in the hotel during the summer months by Stig Lommer, who had his breakthrough here. He was manager and producer of the Hornbæk Revue in 1935 – and that made him famous throughout the country. The score for the opening revue was written by Aage Stentoft, and Victor Borge and Sigfred Johansen were among the performers.

One of the first performances took place in the special canopy that has room for 12 selected guests, but they had to move to a different room already that same year. The red and green lamps that were used were judged by the authorities to be confusing to ships and boats out at sea. If the boats thought they were from a lighthouse, they would run aground. Therefore, there have not been lights in the canopy since 1936.

After World War II, the seaside hotel was sold to the Danish polio association, Polioforeningen, who used it as a rehabilitation centre for polio victims. Today, the hospital is still a rehabilitation centre for spinal cord injuries, and many of the grand old suites have been remodelled to fit this purpose.

But what is the building on top of the roof? Some call it the bridge of a submarine, others the wheelhouse of a ship. However you describe it, you can still see Hornbæk’s special landmark on top of the hospital building to this day!

Sources: William Ledegaard and encyclopaedia of local history, Helsingør Leksikon  (website in Danish)

Coordinates:  Latitude: 56.092509
longitude: 12.456568