History of the hotel

Svaneke’s well-preserved merchant’s house was built way back in the 1600s and it’s not difficult to indulge in nostalgic reveries of a distant past. If the walls of the hotel could talk, we would hear stories of a hectic city life in the days of merchant ships, when the merchant house was a trading company of considerable size by the standards of the time.

As early as 1687, the farm had a prominent debut as an inn when the then King Christian V. and an entourage that included Admiral Niels Juel and Norway’s stadholder Gyldenløve were to inspect the brand new fortress Christiansø.

The merchant farm experienced its heyday from around 1650 until the early 1900s, when the railroad and other modern forms of transport replaced merchant ships as the primary means of transport. The farm was given its current name after Johan P. Siemsen, who in 1827 married the widow of the farm’s active merchant Jeppe Holst.

In the 1930s, the old merchant’s house was converted into a hotel and has since undergone careful restoration.

In 2021, the restaurant underwent a complete renovation and is now bright and welcoming.