Restoring the historic buildings and studying their prior use

Project responsible Kjeld Borch Vesth, curator, The National Museum of Denmark

During the 225 years Tranquebar functioned as a Danish colony, a number of stone buildings were erected – some of which still exist. Several are threatened by subversion due to the failing of maintenance, caused by lack of financial resources locally and other domains been prioritised by the regional antiquarian authorities.

Within the last couple of decades a renewed Danish interest has taken place in the area and efforts have been done to form the baseline of initiatives to save the buildings from demolishing.    Within the last years the primary mover in Tranquebar has been the Trankebar Association (Foreningen Trankebar) that initiated and partly implemented (in collaboration with the Indian architect Chella Pillai) the restoration of the first third of Fort Dansborg, while the Indian authorities restored the remaining two thirds of Dansborg. The Association has now continued its efforts with a renovation of the Nygade cemetery.

But still, a number of buildings need to be restored. In top of these is the Governor’s Residence that was bought by the Danish Crown in 1784 and has been through several alterations. During Peter Anker’s government period in Tranquebar (1786-1807) it was probably the most spectacular and most important of the European houses in the City. Today, the building is in bad shape and immediate action has to be taken if the remaining parts of the building are not to disappear all together.

The building restorations will be based on antiquarian pre-investigations, so that the complex architectonical history of the buildings should be recorded and reflected in the final restoration. The restoration projects give an opportunity to establish collaboration between Danish and Indian antiquarian authorities and others, and the results of restorations and future collaborations may be increasing knowledge and practical skill, as well as developing method of restoration.

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