On 5th March 1695 King Christian V issued a statutory order regarding “Public inns and public-houses in Denmark”. From this it appears that public-houses had to be opened in the market towns where the post passed through. Shortly after this two licensed inns were established in Roskilde, Prindsen and the Hamborg Inn. Prindsen was placed in Algade.

In 1731 Roskilde was ravaged by a devastating fire. Therefore, the earliest information in writing is a guest list dating from 1721, when Christopher Berg was the owner of Prindsen. He died before the fire, and his wife Mrs Berg continued to run the inn. She was a determined lady and had to rebuild the inn after the fire, a demanding project at a time when fire insurance was unheard of. Mrs Berg sold Prindsen in 1748, and until the 1780s the inn experienced many upheavals, changing owner quite frequently.

The Rosted family took over Prindsen. Carl Christian Rosted died in 1787, just 46 years old. His widow, Anne Marie, decided to continue to run the inn. She was a hard-working lady who managed to bring up three children, at the same time making sure Prindsen became as a good place to eat. Mrs Rosted survived her three children, so during the latter part of her life her cousin’s daughter, Agathe Johanne Hansen, stayed with her to be trained as her successor. Agathe married Captain Niels Christian Sveistrup, who became the owner of Prindsen in 1825 after Mrs Rosted passed away. Captain Sveistrup was a prominent man and held several honorary offices in Roskilde. He had a new big banqueting hall built. Here the people of Roskilde could break the monotony of life by attending balls, dinner parties, concerts and theatre perfomances. Captain Sveistrup died in 1874 as an honorary citizen of Roskilde.

Hans Christian Andersen has visited Hotel Prindsen on several occasions, the first time in 1825. During the summer of 1842 he writes these, not very flattering, sentences in his diary. You have to keep in mind that the great poet was very focused on his own person and his health, and generally found it difficult to fall asleep:

“Very bad lodgings at Prindsen, no blinds, so the neighbours opposite had to draw their blinds, when I was changing. The sun was burning hot. The servants at Prindsen were naturally distinguished. Home at eight, first time I sleep in the town, where the kings sleep, I sleep badly, I sleep at Prindsen. Right opposite me a gentleman sings: Little Viggo will you dandle, little does he realize the poet sits right opposite”.

The writer and marine painter Holger Drachmann has stayed at Hotel Prindsen on various occasions, among these for a longer period at the end of 1882, when he tried to hire rooms at Roskilde Palace which, in his humble opinion, was a suitable residence for a man of his genius and calibre. At the beginning of December everything seemed bleak for the great poet. The terms of the lease had not been finalised, and the whole Drachmann family had come down with a heavy cold. His plans succeeded, and towards the end of December 1882 the family could move into their Palace, and as he himself put it “evacuate the camp hospital at the hotel”.

Gustav Wied gives a vivid description of the atmosphere of the gatherings of the Popinjay Shooting Society of Roskilde in his book “Livsens Ondskab”: “In the big hall the huge gas chandelier was lit, and on the sides of the six pier glasses the cande labra were sparkling. Side by side in close rows was the audience; the gentlemen in full evening dress, and the ladies and unmarried ladies in full dress. There was an almost religious silence in the room. One hardly dared draw one’s breath, one was so anxious”

“There was now more sparkle in the eyes and brighter colour on the cheeks. The gentlemen’s protecting arms were tighter around the ladies’ lissom waistes. The hearts were beating and the lips laughing. One began to become like a human being. The class difference melted away. And the hour of the uncritical events had come. The whole hall was buzzing with noise and laughter and came alive, filled with a whirring chaos. The chandelier was swaying on the air waves from the swirling skirts, and the floor was moving. And the linen double doors of the decorations of the theatre were flapping. At 4 1/2 the last guests went home.”

THE GOLDEN AGE HALL ANNO 1880

THE GOLDEN AGE HALL ANNO 2010