Hotel Royal, Copenhagen

Hotel Royal
Thott Mansion seen from the square
General information
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Location	Copenhagen
Country	Denmark
Coordinates	55°40′40.47″N 12°34′51.83″E / 55.6779083°N 12.5810639°E / 55.6779083; 12.5810639Coordinates: 55°40′40.47″N 12°34′51.83″E / 55.6779083°N 12.5810639°E / 55.6779083; 12.5810639
Current tenants	Nordic Council
Construction started	1796
Completed	1798
Design and construction
Architect	Jørgen Henrich Rawert

Hotel Royal is a former hotel located at the corner of Ved Stranden and Fortunstræde in central Copenhagen, Denmark. The hotel existed from 1798 until 1876 and the building has later housed a newspaper publishing house and the Danish Society of Engineers. The listed, Neoclassical building is now home to Nordic Council's operations in Denmark. It fronts Slotsholmens Kanal and is located opposite Christiansborg Palace on Slotsholmen.

The first building at the site was a town house constructed by the nobleman Lave Brahe, who owned the estates Vittskövle and Krogholm in Scania. The building was later converted into an inn which was already on 6 April 1602 referred to as Fortunen (The Fortuna). From 1706 to 20, Fortunen was owned by Frederik Rostgaard. He had studied Arbian in Germany, linguistics in the Netherlands and Old German, Old English and Greek in Oxford. He had later travelled to Paris, Italy and Malta, now mainly to collect valuable documents. On his return to Denmark, he had been appointed to gehejmearkivar in 1700. In 1725, he was accused of bribery and sentenced to loss of titles and expelled from Copenahgen.

Fortunen's original buildings were demolished by a later owner, vine bottler Joachim Giesler, who replaced them by a new hotel building in 1748. He was a friend of king Frederick who had separate chambers installed on the first floor. The king also used the hotel for housing of guests in connection with larger celebrations at the royal palace. In the cellar was a tavern and vine store which had a gilded relief of Dionysos above its entrance. Many people thought it depicted Bacchus and the establishment therefore became known as Den Fyldne Fortun (The Gilded Fortuna).

The building was completely destroyed in the Copenhagen Fire of 1795. The owner Heinrich Wilhelm Løbel soon began the construction of a new and more elegant hotel building and the hotel reopened under the name Hotel Royal in 1898. It is believed that the architect was Jørgen Henrich Rawert. It served a celebrated "Parisian" cuisine in the ground floor facing Fortunstræde.