Finns Pension

History

Source: Skagen Onsdag 21.12.2018 by Poul Bernth 

Count  Knuth (Kanuth)

Count and chamberlain Christoffer Adam Valdemar Knuth (1855-1942) had often visited Skagen, where he stayed at the Grenen Badehotel.   Around 1920 he wanted to build his own home in Skagen and found a plot near Sønderstrand. 

As fate would have it, in 1921 a storm knocked down part of the trees on the Count's Lilliendahl estate on Zealand. 

Count Knuth wanted to use these fallen trees to build his home in Skagen. 

The count had a Norwegian son-in-law with whom he had often gone hunting in the area known as Dagalid. Here he had seen the old Norwegian log houses, many of which dated back to the Viking Age. He wanted a house like that in Skagen.

The count's house was built on the farmyard at Lilliendal. But without windows and doors. The construction method itself was the same as that still used to build log houses in Norway. No screws or nails were used in the construction of the walls. The beams were assembled using wooden beams about 20 centimetres long and slightly thinner than a broomstick.  Once the Count had approved the house, all the beams were marked with burned numbers. The house was dismantled and the individual parts were shipped to Skagen.

For the next 20 years, the house became the count's favourite summer residence. The Countess was not present. She spent the summers at her family's estate, "Egelykke", on Langeland. 

Now don't think that the count was lonely in his lovely house in Skagen. He had his "masseuse" up here with him. Everyone knew that. Even the countess. The count and his masseuse were something advanced for the creatures of that time. The mistress bathed naked in the sea in front of the house!

The Count died in 1942 and was buried in the family grave on Zealand. 

Finn and Palle

In the spring of 1992 Finn Bredahl Jørgensen bought the house and opened "Finn's Hotel Pension" on 9 June of the same year. At that time it was the smallest hotel in Denmark. It has room for 11 guests in five double rooms and one single room.

Today the place is run as "Finns B&B". 

The house is very cosy with antiques and beautiful old furniture. There is no TV in the house, because as Finn says: "If you've come to Skagen to watch TV, you might as well stay at home".

The fireplace is also a library with many books about the Skagen painters, and of course there is also a lot of theatre literature. Finn is a former actor and theatre director and worked for many years at Odense theatre, where he also received his training

Finn and his partner, Palle, took care of everything in the daily operation, which means booking, checking in and out guests, cleaning, cooking, serving, shopping, gardening and much more.

In 2019 Finn and Palle handed over the guesthouse to the guitarist from Michal Learns To Rock, Mikkel Lentz, who continues to run the guesthouse as "Finn's Bed And Breakfast"