![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/65eb8b770500f7017b1653476ffda1f59f76eea8-2160x1440.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nLars Daugaard Jepsen remembers vividly the morning of 16 April 2024, when fire tore through the historic Copenhagen stock exchange. \u201cIt was a beautiful morning and our Queen\u2019s birthday, so our flag was up everywhere,\u201d says the deputy director of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which owns the building. At 7.36am, an alarm sounded at the 400-year-old site, which was undergoing its largest ever restoration. Within three minutes, the fire department was there; within half an hour, 180 firefighters were working to put out the flames.<\/p>\n
The fire destroyed more than half of the red-brick exchange, which is a popular tourist attraction and a \u201clandmark for Copenhagen\u201d, Daugaard Jepsen says. A sizeable part of its copper roof was lost, as was its spire, which was carved in the shape of four intertwined dragon tails and visible from all around the city. In a tragic irony, the symbol of the dragon had been believed to protect the building from fire.<\/p>\n
30,000 Danes gathered around the fire were crying<\/p>\n
Staff from the chamber of commerce worked with firefighters, members of Denmark\u2019s Royal Life\u00a0Guards and brave passers-by to remove hundreds of works of art from the burning building\u201498% of which were saved. Nevertheless, the emotional impact of the disaster, the cause of which remains unknown, was significant. \u201cThe estimate is that 30,000 Danes gathered around to see the fire and a lot of them were crying,\u201d Daugaard Jepsen continues.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Firefighters tackle the blaze at the stock exchange in 2024<\/p>\n
Photo: Marcus Stoltze Dansk Erhverv<\/p>\n
The chamber of commerce and a network of\u00a0other experts have been working intensely ever since to bring the Old Stock Exchange, first opened in 1624 as a commodity trading post, back to life, with the aim of reopening in full in 2029. The total\u00a0budget for the reconstruction remains undisclosed, but it has largely been funded by insurance, and Daugaard Jepsen says that \u201cDanish funds\u201d such\u00a0as foundations have given DKK200m (\u00a323.1m).<\/p>\n
Two architectural firms, Leif Hansen and Praksis, were brought in to oversee the work. In December, part of the first floor opened to the public, while in April a section of scaffolding was removed to reveal some of the exterior, on which restoration had continued. In August, the emergency responders will be celebrated at a reception, when they can \u201csee the building they saved\u201d. That month, the chamber of commerce hopes to have the permits needed to begin reconstructing the areas that were lost.<\/p>\n
Lessons from Notre-Dame<\/p>\n
Insights from other organisations affected by fire\u2014most prominently, Notre-Dame in Paris\u2014have been critical to the progress of the project. \u201cWithin the first week, we visited the Notre-Dame site to learn from their management and architects,\u201d Daugaard Jepsen continues. \u201cTheir most important piece of advice was: make a clear plan, communicate it and then start sourcing your materials right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
This task has not been simple. As the Dutch Renaissance-style exchange is heritage listed, according to Danish law it must be rebuilt as close to the original as possible. A total of 886 pine trees had to be sourced from within the former kingdom of King Christian IV, including a selection from Gotland in Sweden, the same region in which the original timber was acquired in the 17th century. The production of 800,000 handmade bricks, mimicking the originals, is currently being planned, while copper debris from the burned roof has been recycled in Finland for re-use.<\/p>\n
Opportunities for young craftspeople<\/p>\n
Craftspeople with the necessary skills are thin on the ground, too. There are only two companies that can recreate the spire, and they are \u201calso fixing all the churches in Denmark\u201d, Daugaard Jepsen explains. A family-owned company in Thyholm will undertake the task of recreating the lead-clad spire with the dragons. The reconstruction project is a fitting chance, Daugaard Jepsen says, to promote the next generation of these experts, and the chamber of commerce has been asking contractors to ensure young craftspeople are included in the project.<\/p>\n
There is a jovial sense of competition with France. \u201cWe want to beat them,\u201d Daugaard Jepsen says. \u201cThey rebuilt the Notre-Dame in five years; our idea is to rebuild faster.\u201d Yet another key piece of wisdom passed on by their counterparts in France, with whose government Denmark signed a co-operation agreement in 2025, was the need to be practical, and realistic, about the future. \u201c[The idea is] if you want to have a church that lasts the next 1,000 years, there will be a fire. But how do you make it as small as possible?\u201d The proposed answer, in Denmark, includes dividing the building into a greater number of sections, secured by fire walls, to contain any possible fire. Several other fire suppression measures are under consideration.<\/p>\n
The operation to salvage the works of art has been equally remarkable. A list of works, ranked in importance, was drawn up a decade ago, so staff knew exactly what to save. On the day of the fire, members of the National Museum\u2019s conservation team rushed to the exchange, assessing objects as they were carried out and sending many of them to their storage facilities, to await conservation. \u201cWe are neighbours; it felt natural,\u201d says Eva B\u00f8je Nielsen, the museum\u2019s head of conservation.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/b0b158db7573218caee865a3365a01ab7fe84b91-2160x1440.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The skill of the National Museum\u2019s conservation team helped to minimise permanent damage to works such as Peder Severin Kr\u00f8yer\u2019s painting From Copenhagen Stock Exchange (1895, centre)<\/p>\n
Photo: Sarah M\u00f8lsted, Dansk Erhverv<\/p>\n
At the museum, water-damaged works were subjected to a slow, controlled drying process or frozen to avoid the risks posed by thawing, moisture and mould. The speed and efficiency of the whole operation meant that most objects suffered little to no damage, including one of the most famous: Peder Severin Kr\u00f8yer\u2019s painting From Copenhagen Stock Exchange (1895), which shows \u201call the Danish trade leaders from the beginning of the 19th century in one picture\u201d, Daugaard Jepsen explains. It was subsequently sent on tour around Denmark.<\/p>\n
Some works were less fortunate: a marble bust of the financier and industrialist C. F. Tietgen was covered in soot and dirt, and needed to be steamed, cleaned and latex-treated, B\u00f8je Nielsen explains. A small collection of objects were destroyed, including a zinc statue of the former Danish king Christian IV, of which only a piece was recovered. But several restored paintings have made their way back to the exchange, the first being a grand portrait of that same monarch, which was the last to be evacuated.<\/p>\n
Return of the dragon<\/p>\n
Daugaard Jepsen adds that new art will be shown in the building, including work depicting the fire, and a sculpture of a baby water dragon. \u201cThe idea is that it protects the building until 2029, when the big water dragon is back on the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daugaard Jepsen hopes this can be a \u201cnew beginning\u201d for the stock exchange. \u201cIt has been part of Danish history for 400 years,\u201d he says. \u201cOur ambition is that it will part of it for the next 1,000 years, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lars Daugaard Jepsen remembers vividly the morning of 16 April 2024, when fire tore through the historic Copenhagen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[108,66519,66518,10004,40337],"class_list":["post-137654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-copenhagen","tag-copenhagen","tag-danish-golden-age","tag-disasters-destruction","tag-museums-heritage","tag-restoration"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117008841373886966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}