Founded in the late 17th century, it is also a visitor attraction with many historical buildings that has played a vital role in the history of Denmark as well as Copenhagen.

The naval base used to occupy the entire area of Holmen, which was in fact created by a series of landfills to house it, but is now confined to its northernmost island of Nyholm.

[1] Erik Menved was the first Danish King to establish a naval port in Copenhagen.

Christian IV built a "war port" on Slotsholmen, but the harbour's basin has been filled since and is the site of the Royal Library today.

As ships started to grow in size, the war port became too small, and the fleet moved to Bremerholm.

Under Christian VI, a dock was established in 1739 at Christianshavn, close to where Strandgade (Beach Street) is today.

The name Gammel Dok (Old Docks) still show where part of the Navy's shipyard was.

The seamen on the ships simply threw their waste and trash directly into the harbor, which had a negative impact on the city's health.

The sinking of ships continued, filled with mud from the harbor and the trash from Copenhagen's streets.

While development on Nyholm was continuing, a little island by the name of Motzmanns Plads, just north of Christianshavn, was bought.

A new island was created, with landfill, just east of Christianholm, where a large arsenal was built and finished in 1770.

This is because in the middle of the 19th century, Arsenaløen formed a land connection with Christianshavn, so a new main entrance was created to Holmen, the so-called Warf Bridge Guard, or Værftsbrovagt.