Nyboder

This guide to Nyboder in Copenhagen starts with the deal behind those buttercup-yellow houses: King Christian the Fourth's 1631 company town for naval families, where free rent and a hospital came in exchange for sons bound to decades at sea. It follows how tight the quarters became as Copenhagen's navy grew, including a proposal to ship some families off to the island of Møn rather than build more housing. The houses started out red and white, long before that shade Danes now call Nyboder yellow.