About the Academy
The Danish Academy in Rome aims to preserve and further develop the cultural ties between Denmark and Italy, two countries rich in history and traditions that often inspire one another. The Academy fulfills this purpose by providing a framework for research, studies, and cultural activities within the fields of science and art, fostering the growth of ideas and collaboration across various disciplines.
Thanks to the Queen Ingrid Roman Foundation, founded in 1957 by Queen Ingrid, the Academy is able to provide scholarships for researchers and artists with ties to Denmark to conduct scientific or artistic studies in Rome, a city known for its artistic environment and historical heritage.
The Danish Academy in Rome is a self-governing body under the Ministry of Culture and is located in the building donated by the Carlsberg Foundation in Via Omero 18, in the immediate vicinity of the large historic Borghese Park in Rome.
History
A Danish-Swedish Academy is established on a trial basis.
There were plans to establish a Danish house in Rome, from before World War II. In 1925, a Danish-Swedish Academy was established on a trial basis in a spacious apartment in Via del Boschetto with support from the Carlsberg Foundation and the New Carlsberg Foundation, among others. The following year, this institution continued as the Swedish Institute in Rome. However, Danish researchers were still able to find admission to this Academy, whose origin was a joint Scandinavian project.
The first official inauguration of the Danish Academy in Rome.
Accademia di Danimarca was officially inaugurated on the 26th of October 1956. In the first eleven years, the Academy was housed on the second floor of the Palazzo Primoli I Via Zarnadelli, near Piazza Navona. Queen Ingrid was the honorary president of the Academy and in 1959 she founded Queen Ingrids Roman Foundation. This foundation is now administered by the Carlsberg Foundation and provides grants for scholarships, study trips, and library purposes, twice a year.
The Carlsberg Foundation donates the yet to be built building to the Danish Academy designed by Kay Fisker.
The World's Fair in Valle Giulia contributed to the international connotation of the area. It was in this valley that the Italian state offered various countries free building plots for the construction of national research and cultural institutions in the interwar period. As early as the 1930s, Denmark was offered the empty plot next to the Swedish Academy - the plot on which Carl Brummer envisioned a Danish house in Rome.
In the late 1950s, it became apparent that the building site was still available, provided that the Danish state was willing to invest in the construction of an Academy. In 1960, at the request of the Academy's board, Kay Fisker (1893–1965) drafted a preliminary design for an academy building on the site. In 1961, on the occasion of brewer J. C. Jacobsen’s 150th birthday, the Carlsberg Foundation donated this yet-to-be-realized building to the Accademia di Danimarca. In return for the site in Valle Giulia, Denmark committed to providing land and a building for an Italian cultural academy in Copenhagen.
The foundation stone of Accademia di Danimarca is placed.
The foundation stone was laid on 22 April 1964 in connection with King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid's official visit to Italy. Kay Fisker died in 1965 and did not live to see the completion of the ambitious building project.
Official inauguration of the Danish Academy's new building
Queen Margrethe has been the protector of Accademia di Danimarca since 2011. The Carlsberg Foundation awards the Princess Margrethe Grant to scientific research at the Academy every year on the Queens birthday, the 16th of April.
Restoration and modernisation of the Danish Academy.
In 2014-15, a comprehensive restoration and modernisation project was designed and implemented to solve technical, aesthetic and functional problems, while respecting and evoking Kay Fisker's original intentions. The project was funded by generous grants from the Carlsberg Foundation, A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine McKinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal and the Ministry of Culture. Architect MAA, PhD Bente Lange was responsible for the building part of the project, designer Marianne Tuxen took care of the lighting, and Schul Landskabsarkitekter carried out the garden design and planting.
The main purpose of the restoration and modernisation was to improve the indoor climate, to create better and less energy-consuming lighting and to optimise the work facilities.
Kay Fisker was an obvious choice of architect for the Danish Academy in Rome.
Kay Fisker (1893-1965) was a central figure in Danish architecture during this period. He was a professor and teacher for 25 years and authored numerous articles and books. Fisker had a major influence on the development of architecture in Denmark and on the following generations of young architects.
The building
The Accademia di Danimarca is a strong and distinctive Danish architectural work built in an Italian context. The building was designed by architect Kay Fisker (1893–1965), who was one of the most prominent figures in Danish architecture of his time. The Accademia di Danimarca was inaugurated in 1967 and is Kay Fisker's final work. With his death two years before the inauguration, Fisker did not have the opportunity to see the completed building.
If you have been to Aarhus University, the Accademia di Danimarca is recognizable. The yellow bricks and dark flooring, the beautiful teak doors and ceilings, the fine outdoor tile surfaces, the window sections, and the large doors, as well as the human scale of the rooms, are all features that are recurrent in Kay Fisker and his Danish functionalism.
At the same time, the Academy's building also contains references to its Roman context. The vestibule with the atrium courtyard refers to the ancient Roman 'domus', just as the placement of Søren Georg Jensen's sculpture named Aurora Septentrionalis in the centre of the atrium refers to the Roman villa's 'impluvium', a vessel for collecting rainwater. The travertine slabs with beautifully composed Latin inscriptions that adorn the walls of the vestibule and the classical bronze gate are also reminiscent of antiquity.
