The Cradle of Imagination
Step into the three small rooms that make up Hans Christian Andersen’s childhood home.
The house consists of three small rooms, but despite its size and the family’s hard circumstances, it was this childhood home that became the cradle of H.C. Andersen’s imagination.
It was from this home that H.C. Andersen discovered the world. It was here he first felt the light of summer and the darkness and cold of winter — the scent of Christmas Eve with apple fritters, duck, and candles.
It was here he lay on the floor trying to sleep while his father lay dead in the bed. Yet even in the deepest poverty, there was the richness of heart and imagination. It was here that H.C. Andersen found his stories and dreams.
A poet blossoms
The garden of his childhood home held great significance for H.C. Andersen.
As a child, H.C. Andersen often sat in the courtyard behind his childhood home. It was not a garden—there was only a single gooseberry bush.
Every day he looked into its leaves—from the time they were small green buds until the yellow leaves fell away. In the gooseberry bush’s leaves, he saw all of nature, and in his fairy tales, it came to life.
Today, countless flowers and historical varieties have grown out of those fairy tales and into the garden the poet never had as a child.