Kongens Lyngby

Sister cities

• Nuuk

History

The name Kongens Lyngby is first recorded in 1348. At that time large parts of North Zealand belonged to the Catholic Church (represented by Roskilde Cathedral) and the name Lyngby was associated with several places. Store Lyngby belonged to Arresø church. "Our" Lyngby, on the other hand, was crown land. It may therefore have been to distinguish it from these other places that the name emerged. The original Lyngby village is now known as Bondebyen. Kongens Lyngby was also the site of a watermill, Lyngby Watermill, which is first mentioned in 1492 but is probably several hundred years older. A royal road, Lyngby Kongevej, was created in 1584 to provide an easy link between Copenhagen and Frederick's new Frederiksborg Castle from where it was later extended to Fredensborg and Helsingør. It was the first of a number of royal roads created by Frederick II and his successor Christian IV. In the 18th century, a growing number of country houses were built in the area by civil servants and merchants from Copenhagen. Kongens Lyngby had no market rights but developed into a local service centre with an increasing number of craftsmen and merchants. The North Line came to Lyngby in 1863 and was extended to Helsingør in 1864. This enabled citizens from Copenhagen to settle permanently in the area. Several factories opened in the area, including Christian Hasselbalck's curtain factory in 1892 which later became the town's largest employer. In the 1930s, Kongens Lyngby developed into a modern suburb. The North Line was converted into an S-train line with more stations and Kongens Lyngby gradually merged with the neighboring settlements.