Have you ever felt the weight of history? Standing before Den Skæve Kro in Ebeltoft you can. This isn’t just a building. It’s a time capsule. More than 300 years of stories are woven into its crooked timbers.
Den Skæve Kro is more than a pub. It’s a silent witness to Ebeltoft’s rich past. Its unique “styrterumskonstruktion” a clever loft design speaks volumes about practicality in bygone eras. The beams cleverly jut out supporting a sunken loft. This maximized storage space in a time when every inch counted.
Imagine the shipbuilders who once called this place home. For much of the 17th century skilled craftsmen lived and worked here. One notable resident was Niels Jensen Skibsbygger. He even built a ship on the Arnakke beach with the permission of Count Arenfeldt. His son Jens Nielsen continued the tradition. Sadly both perished in a 1701 epidemic.
The Kro’s history is far from straightforward. It wasn’t always a pub. It was once home to Ebeltoft’s first dyer Jens Jepsen. Ironically he never attained the royal privilege that his craft once enjoyed. After him various ship captains owned the building. Then came Captain Knud Christian Utrecht. He gifted it to his mother the feisty Madame Marie Thorsager.
Marie was the daughter of the town’s pugnacious priest Knud Utrecht. Her husband Constantin Thorsager an unsuccessful trader ended up in debtor’s prison. Marie famously attacked the bailiff her brother-in-law with a dirty handkerchief. She also unleashed a torrent of abuse. She lived to be 96 years old. Her daughter Elisabeth Borggrevinck inherited her mother’s fiery spirit.
Later the Kro changed hands many times. Doctor Samuel Fr Raupauch a Pomeranian physician briefly owned it. During the British Wars of 1807-1814 it even served as a hospital. A Danish soldier was shot near the nearby coastal battery. The war years were far from peaceful.
Wealthy dyer’s widow Kristine Asmussen Kjellerup bought the property in 1818. She lived there until 1860. After that it was owned by a series of carters. They used the building for their horse-drawn transport businesses. Laurs Peter Severin Rasmussen was the first. Marius Høyer a fuel dealer followed. Then Niels Nielsen Kejser bought it in 1919.
The building even included a stable a barn and a carriage gate. Kejser’s wife was a remarkable woman. She hauled a cow to Grenå market at age 11. The trip took three days. She later traveled to America with a friend. They stayed for three years.
The last carter Anker Møller owned the Kro until the 1960s. He even got a truck around 1950. After him it belonged to master builder Aage V Jensen and then to the legendary police officer and tourist association man S A Jensen. He meticulously restored Den Skæve Kro. It reopened as a pub in 1968. It continues to stand proudly a testament to Ebeltoft’s resilient spirit. So take a moment. Absorb this place’s charm. It’s a story etched in wood and time.