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Town hall, courthouse and
detention centre in Nexø.
Nexø Town hall in 1988, before a major renovation. Photo Algot.
One of the consequences of the new Danish constitution of 5th June 1849
was that many new town halls were built throughout the kingdom. This
was the start of democracy as Denmark's form and government. On
Bornholm there was a town hall in Rønne (1834 – replacing an older
town hall
from 1729), and subsequently town halls were built in Hasle (1855), Allinge
(1881), (Allinge-Sandvig had from earlier times an old courthouse in Sandvig),
Svaneke (1858), and Nexø (which had an older town hall on the harbour
square)
and Aakirkeby.
Christian VIII is said on his deathbed to have advised his son,
Frederik VII, to replace the absolute monarchy with a free
constitution. Frederik VII accepted the end of
absolute monarchy, admittedly under
great popular pressure, but presumably also because his personal
interest in political problems was to be noted. Christian VIII
died in January 1848 and Frederik II was proclaimed king. He accepted
the new form of government and the free constitution in March 1848 and
about a year later could sign the new constitution. The absolute
monarchy was over and Denmark became the constitutional monarchy
we know today.
The Nexø town hall, courthouse and detention centre was built in 1855-1856,
and was sold to private owners as of 1st January 2006.
One can still read on the facade the admonitory words ”Ingen maa tage sig
selv Ret” - "No one may take the law into his own hands". The
town hall
was originally common to both the town, the Søndre district and
initially also Aakirkeby, which first got its own town hall in
1867.
From the start, the building was designed with a room that was used as
both a courtroom and town hall chamber, a room for committee
meetings, and four single and one shared detention cells.
The old courtroom. Photo Algot 1988.
A valuation for fire insurance from 1867 gives a good understanding of
the old building's construction: It was described as 21 fag long, (44
alen long and 19½ alen bred) built with a solid foundation wall of
brick,
with a fire-gable and tiled roof. Was constructed as a "Assembly room" (later
corrected to ”Courtroom”), commission room, archive, detention cells
and residency for the gaoler, beneath whose apartment is a large
cellar.
Fitted with plaster ceilings and plank floors, apart from the
front-room, where the floor is tiled as in the archive. The attic is
fitted with a
civil detention cell and two storage rooms.
In the building there are 10 tiled stoves and a built-in tower clock,
built by watchmaker A. Funch, and fixed shelves and counters. A
washhouse and toilets are in the yard.
(1 alen = 0.6277 m)
The tower clock was repaired in connection with the renovation of the
building in 1990. Tower-watchmaker Anders Hansen Funch
was born in Rønne in 1806, but was apprenticed to one of the
country's leading watchmakers, none other than Frederik Jürgensen in
Copenhagen - watchmaker to the
royal court. He lived briefly in Rønne in
1832, but moved to Copenhagen in 1835 and became a citizen of that
city. He was a renowned maker of tower clocks, but also made other
clocks and watches, including the
tower clock for the Kronborg Castle chapel in Elsinore. He died in 1864.
A view of the preserved detention room. Photo Algot 1988.
The old town hall continued to house the local police station and the
courthouse remained in use until just a few years ago. One
cell is still preserved. The local council's political management,
however, moved to a new town hall in
Nexø that was inaugurated in 1984 after the renovation of ”The Old
People's Home” - a town hall that in turn lost its status in
connection with the merger of the Bornholm local councils in 2002. |
