Brøndums Hotel

Why it is renowned

Brøndums Hotel is known abroad through the Skagen Painters, the artists' colony of the late nineteenth century whose painters lodged and dined there; P.S. Krøyer painted them at lunch in the hotel in 1883.¹ The Swedish painter Anna Palm spent the summer of 1885 in Skagen and painted a game of l'hombre in the hotel.² Its wine list carries the recognition of the wine magazine Wine Spectator.³

The story

The house began as a merchant's farm. In 1859 the merchant Erik Brøndum was licensed as an innkeeper and fitted out a few rooms for guests.⁴ The painter Anna Ancher, born Brøndum, was born in the hotel in 1859.¹ From the 1870s the first artists came to Skagen and several of them took rooms with the Brøndums; Michael Ancher, who married Anna in 1880, was among them.⁴¹ Her brother Degn Brøndum took over in 1890, gave the house the name Brøndums Hotel in 1891 and had the architect Ulrik Plesner enlarge it from 1892; Thorvald Bindesbøll designed the dining room in 1906.¹ The painters hung their pictures in the dining room to pay for board and lodging; Degn Brøndum left the hotel to Skagens Museum at his death in 1932, and the old dining room now hangs in the museum.¹ Hans Christian Andersen and Karen Blixen stayed at the hotel.¹

What to know it by

• The dining room1906Thorvald BindesbøllDesigned for the hotel; the original is now in Skagens Museum
• Admiralgården1916Extension of the hotel
• The wine cellarMore than 700 wines, recognised by Wine Spectator