At around half past seven on Tuesday morning, the Copenhagen emergency services received the first emergency call: a fire had broken out in the former stock exchange on the Copenhagen island of Slotsholmen. At eight o’clock there was thick smoke over the copper roof of the historic building, and soon flames shot up and quickly ate through the centuries-old beams. From eight o’clock in the morning, most news channels in the country showed the fire disaster, and at half past eight the delicate dragon tower (Dragespir) collapsed.
The association was immediately there for all Danes: “Our Notre Dame” was the headline in the newspaper Berlinsquealluding to the devastating fire that destroyed the Gothic church in the center of Paris – almost exactly five years ago to the day, on April 15, 2019. Almost word for word tweeted Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsenthis is “our own Notre Dame moment.”
Hundreds of Copenhageners who had stopped in front of the Børsen on their way to work had to watch as perhaps the most beautiful building in the old town fell victim to the flames, many screaming as the blazing remains of the tower fell onto the street. Shortly after ten o’clock, parts of the roof collapsed. “These are terrible images that we see this morning,” wrote Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt on X. “400 years of Danish cultural heritage in flames.”
A man reacts emotionally when he sees the old stock exchange in Copenhagen in flames.
(Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/dpa)
According to current knowledge, there are no injuries and the building is currently empty due to renovation work. There were ten bricklayers, roofers and construction workers on the roof and scaffolding, but they were all apparently able to get to safety.
The fire in the historic building was only under control on Tuesday afternoon. Around 135 forces were deployed. The fire extinguishing work is still in progress, said fire department operations manager Jakob Vedsted Andersen. Half of the stock exchange was more or less burned down, it was said. “We have decided with our board that we will definitely rebuild the Børsen,” said Brian Mikkelsen, managing director of the Danish Chamber of Commerce.
Since important works of art have accumulated in the old stock exchange over the centuries, pictures were also brought to safety by being carried across the street to Christiansborg Palace, where the parliament, the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister’s office and some of the royal family’s representative rooms are located. The probably most important painting “From the Copenhagen Stock Exchange” by PS Krøyer was saved.
The island of Slotsholmen was closed to traffic and some buildings, including the Ministry of Finance, were evacuated as a precaution.
The ancient wooden structures probably acted like accelerant
According to a firefighter, the flames spread quickly to all floors via various elevator shafts. The many ancient wooden structures probably acted like accelerant. Additionally, the fire was fueled by the fact that the copper roof did not allow the heat to escape.
It is now also clear that many of the load-bearing wooden structures were damaged. The part of the building where the fire was raging was beginning to become unstable, an operations manager said. However, the rescue workers initially did not speak of the entire building collapsing.
According to the television station TV 2, the fire department assumes that the fire has to do with the restoration work on the facade. “At least that’s our immediate perception,” said one of the firefighters. “The fire started in the part of the building where work was taking place, but that’s all I can say.”
Fire and smoke rise from the old stock exchange, scaffolding made it difficult to extinguish the fire.
(Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/dpa)
The renovation was actually intended to make the architectural and cultural-historical value of the building shine more clearly. Børsen or Børsbygningen, commissioned by Christian IV, was completed in 1625 and was supposed to reopen completely renovated for its 400th birthday – which is why the entire complex is scaffolded and covered with tarpaulins, which, however, made extinguishing work more difficult. Leif Hansen, the architect responsible for the renovations, said he could hardly bear to watch the fire. “This shouldn’t have happened. I mean, it’s the 400th anniversary of this amazing building that has never burned.”
The archive image from 2019 shows the old stock exchange with the iconic spire, which has now fallen victim to the fire.
(Photo: Linda Kastrup/dpa)
The 117 meter wide brick building originally served as a goods exchange and is a unique architectural piece; the architects Laurens and Hans van Steenwinckel ultimately merged Dutch Renaissance with Danish architecture. The former stock exchange was the first building to be listed as a historical monument in Denmark in 1857. The spindle-like spire showed four dragons, whose tails are twisted together and culminate in three crowns, a symbol of the union between Norway, Denmark and Sweden – and the great power ambitions of the Danes (Norway was a Danish province until 1817; it was constantly at war with Sweden the Baltic Sea rule).
According to city mythology, the fact that the building survived all major fires in the city’s history was attributed to the protection provided by the dragons – but the fire on Tuesday probably broke out in the immediate vicinity of the dragon tower. Culture Minister Engel-Schmidt said in the afternoon that they wanted to do “everything to ensure” that the Dragon Tower would soon reign over Copenhagen again.