Postmen sorting in the Post Yard in 2005. About 45 million mail items are dispatched from here every year. 

Mile Stones

In 1798, the first Danish mail coach departed from the Post Yard and in 1815, the singular ball mail coach; the first Danish stamps were printed here in 1851, the postal feud took place here in 1793, the Germans entrenched themselves in the building on 5th May 1945, and the Blekingegade-gang committed their bloody robbery here on 3rd November 1988. The above is just a small selection of events in this house steaming of history.

Protracted Moving-Out

The house was originally the centre of national communication, but for more than a hundred years the postal service has endeavoured to move functions away from the not very accessible city centre. With the completion of the large central post building in Tietgensgade in 1912 more room was available in Købmagergade to the growing state telegraph which inaugurated its own head quarter in no. 37 in 1923. The telecommunication functions disappeared for good in the 1990's, and Post & Tele Museum moved in. 

The entrance to 33, Købmagergade: The Royal Post Yard. 

Millions of Visitors

These days the museum is celebrating its 10-year jubilee on the address 37, Købmagergade. Since the opening of the museum on 9th October 1998, the many customers of the post office in no. 33 have been supplemented with 1.4 million museum guests in no. 37 while 2 millions have visited our homepage. The museum was primarily fitted up in the old offices of the Central Telegraph Station which were enlarged by a whole new house on the roof: Café Hovedtelegrafen. Since then, a number of postal functions have moved out at a continuously increasing speed and the museum has extended proportionally from the old Central Telegraph Station and into the domain of the Post Yard.

Copenhagen K before, now - and for ever?

The Post Yard still remains the post office of Copenhagen K, which a transfer of ownership will probably not change right away. However, for the sake of good order we have allied with producer Dan Säll and his film company: The everyday life in the Post Yard in the year 2008 is to be immortalized, memories maintained, and the archives ransacked in search of the life that has been lived in this unique group of buildings.

The inspiration comes from our newly launched web-exhibition "Farewell to the Telephone House" which can be seen on www.ptt-museum.dk. The aim is another multimedia production for the internet where readers of the MuseumsPosten can follow the project and read good stories from Købmagergade in future.

Some of the stories are spectacular like the one about the visit from Trotsky. Others are more run-of-the-mill because, fortunately, we are also able to document everyday functions through 228 years in Købmagergade by means of the museum's abundant collections.