Sorte Hest

Sorte Hest
General information
Town or city	Copenhagen
Country	Denmark
Completed	1771

Sorte Hest (English: Black Horse) is the oldest building in the Vesterbro in Copenhagen, Denmark. It used to be a roadside inn, then located well outside the limits of the fortified city, standing on the Vestre Landevej (Western Country Road) leading in and out of Copenhagen through the Western City Gate. It provided accommodation for travellers as well as citizens who failed to enter the city before the city gates were locked at sunset. Today it houses a bakery and café as well as apartments.

The Black Horse was one out of four inns known as "Horses" located along the western access road to Copenhagen. Closest to the city stood the Green Horse, then followed the White Horse, the Yellow Horse and farthest out, on the border to Frederiksberg, the Black Horse. In between these inns were even more establishments catering for travellers. Competition was thus fierce and at some point both the Green and White Horses closed.

The Yellow Horse, with four pavilions and two bowling courses, only survived because it also went into tobacco manufacturing. Part of the area between the Vestre Landevej and Frederiksberg Allé was laid out as tobacco fields and a horse-driven mill was constructed for the processing of tobacco into snus. Other exotic produce cultivated on the estate included peaches, apricots, mulberries and grapes. In the mid-19th century the property was acquired by a couple of akvavit manufacturers who had realized that real estate was a much more lucrative business. They became rich from selling off the land in parcels to developers to use for the construction of multi-story apartment buildings, turning Vestre Landevej into urban Vesterbrogade.

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