Villa Nøjsomheden

By: Thorsten Overgaard March 2001. Latest edited February 18, 2023.

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	Moritz Rudolf Koppel (1828-1901) bought the villa in 1872.
	Johannes Clausen bought the villa in 1944. Jytte Overgaard bought the villa in 1979.

Villa Nøjsomheden is where the Overgaard family have been living since Jytte Overgaard bought it in 1979. Villa Nøjsomheden was originally rebuild from a farm into a summer house by the director Moritz Rudolf Koppel (1828-1901) of Århus Savings Bank. He bought the house from farmer Søren Johansen April 4, 1872 and thereafter used to stay in the house with his family and servants during the summer period.

The house has 24 rooms and sits on a hilltop with a good overview of the Brabrand Lake. It used to be a four winged farm, but two of the wings were torn down by Koppel, and the one wing to be the main building was expanded gratly in two steps into what is now the main building (with one of the remaining wings as the annex).

Villa Nøjsomheden 1963.

Originally it had a large park of 26 "tønder" (35 acres) stretching from the main Silkeborgvej and down to the Brabrand Lake. Koppel imported rare trees and plants from abroad and had a large staff to maintain the garden which also had glasshouses with imported ovens from Holland.

The villa and the park was an attractive place with much wildlife why people from the area and as far as from Århus would visit the area in weekends for picnics and walks.

The park of Villa Nøjsomheden, 1958.

Today the park is reduced to a garden though. The villa has been owned by the Overgaard family since 1979 when Jytte Overgaard bought the villa and started renovating it. A self-made independent woman making her own way sewing curtains. See the timeline of the villa can be read at the bottom of this side.

Villa Nøjsomheden 1996. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Villa Nøjsomheden seen from the garden, 1946.

Villa Nøjsomheden 1958.

Villa Nøjsomheden seen from the park 1956.

The park of Villa Nøjsomheden, 1956.

Mr. Clausen walking in the park, 1956.

The Clausen family outside Villa Nøjsomheden, 1958.

A Volvo 444 in front of Villa Nøjsomheden, 1958.

Main stairway in the Villa Nøjsomheden. The local painter Ole Østrup (1941 - 2002) lived in the villa for a while in the 1990's. 2002

Villa Nøjsomheden 2001 just before the original windows from 1872 was renewed ...

The windows from 1872 was renewed in 2001. Here it's the large window in the livingroom.

Robin Isabella von Overgaard and grandmother Jytte von Overgaard playing in the garden 2009. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Villa Nøjsomheden seen from the main road, Silkeborgvej, 1993.

Villa Nøjsomheden 1981 when first it was snowing heavily, then came the rain and then the cold. The result was high snow with "a layer of candy"

The Overgaard family in the garden of Villa Nøjsomheden, ca. 2000

Even it is now only a garden, and not a park, the Villa Nøjsomheden got the first golf green in 2002. Here Jytte Overgaard is holding the flag.

Robin Isabella von Overgaard and Jytte von Overgaard in the glasshouse, 2008. © Thorsten Overgaard.

The glass house in the garden of Villa Nøjsomehden 2022.

Martin Overgaard (1963-2022) in the garden of Villa Nøjsomheden, 1992. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Villa Nøjsomheden 2022.

Robin Isabella von Overgaard cleaning the living room in Villa Nøjsomheden, 2018. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Caroline von Overgaard and Philip Overgaard playing chess, December 2020. Leica M10-P with Leica 50mm Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Christmas in the Villa Nøjsomhedenv, December 2002. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Charlotte Cornelius Overgaard and Herdis Riis in the kitchen of Villa Nøjsomheden, 1995.

Maibritt Overgaard and Robin Isabella von Overgaard, New years eve at the 1st floor, 2004.

Philip Overgaard putting the star on the christmas tree in December 2020. Leica M10-P with Leica 50mm Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Jytte von Overgaard oversees that Caroline von Overgaard and Philip Overgaard plays chess while Oliver von Overgaard is drawing a viking ship on his iPad. Leica M10-P with Leica 50mm Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Jytte von Overgaard and Caroline von Overgaard, December 2020. Leica M10-P with Leica 50mm Noctilux-M ASPH f/0.95. g Thorsten Overgaard.

Villa Nøjsomedehen 2022.

A guest family staying at Villa Nøjsomheden 2017.

The Annex:

The annex housed the animals, mostly horses back in 1872. Later on a washing house was added and then in the 1947 an apartment was made for the chauffeur of the Chocolate Producer Clausen who owned the house then. In the 1980's the apartment was extended further by four students who then rented it as their apartment for some years.
After a minor fire in the roof in 1992 the annex was rebuild and the roof extended so that two floors of the whole annex was made into an apartment.

The annex of Villa Nøjsomheden, ca. 1997

Villa Nøjsomheden. The annex' first floor anno 2002

The annex of Villa Nøjsomheden 2022.

Maibritt Overgaard in the office in the annex, August 2003

The annex of Villa Nøjsomheden, 2012.

View from the annex of Villa Nøjsomheden to the Brabrandsøen, January, 2003 where one can see the first row of three rows of houses beuilt in the former park. Here is how the park looked in 1956 fro the bottom of the garden:

The park and Villa Nøjsomheden, 1956.

The Annex of Villa Nøjsomheden, 1956

The small annex [1998]

In 1998 yet another annex was renovated. A small house in the corner of the garden to house garden equipment. The plan is to make a Japanese garden next to the small annex.

The small annex was built in 1998 for garden machines.

The small annex being build 1998 by Leif and Henning Nielsen (brother-in-law to Jytte Overgaard).

The Small Annex in the front with The Annex and Villa Nøjsomheden in the back, 2017.

The playhouse

For a short while, the playhouse for Robin stood in the garden, like ten years from 2008 to 2018. It was made with traditional grass roof.

A small playhouse for Robin, with grass roof inspired from the Faroe Islands.

The new floor [1994]

In 1994 the floor in the livingroom was changed after we had suspected that there was a dead mouse below it. So the old floor from 1872 was removed and new oak herringe floor was laid. In the process the ceiling downstairs in the cellar was also renewed. During the work that went on for 6 months, using the finest old techniques, it was found out that the smell did come from a dead mouse, but it was not under the floor but in a wall ...

The livingroom of Villa Nøjsomheden after the oak floor was finished in 1994 with Hørning Parket.

The original floor from 1872 was made with beams (bjælker), pudding boards (indskudsbrædder) and pugging (a layer of clay for sound and fireproof, in Danish "indskudsler") as it was done in the past.

The new floor.

The ceilings of Villa Nøjsomheden

Throughout the villa are wooden ceilings made of the finest Pine (as are the floors and windows) and are original from 1872. The height in the ground floor is 360 cm (12 feet) while the other floors are more modest 11 feet (!).

The ceiling in the kitchen in Villa Nøjsomheden are 12 foot above the floor.

However, in the main living room, the ceiling was painted white during the World War II where it ws difficult to get good paint. The story is that a water fountain on the 2nd floor had caused water damage; but then there is also the other version that the ceiling was painted to brign light, and then later covered with a much lower ceiling for sound insulation in the 1950's. Whichever was true, when Jytte Overgaard bought the house in 1972, the lower ceilign was removed with great excitement. Behind it was the original ceiling, though it was in an egg-white color, which was mainted over with a new white paint. Whe the floor was reniovated in 1993, the ceiling was painted in white and light blue with gold edges, inspired by the Hotel Royal in Aarhus.

The ceiling of the main livingroom in 1994 after it was painted white, light blue and with gold edges inspired by Hotel Royal in Aarhus.

Christmas in Villa Nøjsomheden, 1995.

Timeline of Villa Nøjsomheden [1872 - 2020]

? -1872 Farmer Søren Johansen owned what was then a farm which he had taken over from his father.

1872-1914 Mouritz R. Koppel, founding director of Århus Bank [later the Provinsbanken that became Nordea in the 1990's], bought the area 4 April 1872 and started rebuilding it into the villa that is today..
He later sold off 10 "tønder" (=13.630 acres) north of Silkeborgvej and 10 "tønder" south of the railroad [the land between the railroad and the Brabrand Sea].
Koppel and his family used the house for 3 months every year in the summertime and Mr. Koppel went by his horsecar to and fro the bank in Århus [6 kilometers] every day. His horsecar with two black horses had a distinguished sound that could be heard and recognized from a distance. The Koppel family often had many guests in the house for dinner, and the rule was that when the horses could be heard on the road, family and friends would gather around the dining table, ready to start dinner precisely when M. R. Koppel arrived ...
The Koppel household consisted of four maids, a chauffeur as well as staffs working in the garden and the glass houses.

1914 Butcher, Mr. Hasle, owned the villa for a brief period.

1917 Director Mau Knudsen of Aarhus Dampmølle A/S (existed 1870-1976) bought the villa and had electricity and central heating installed.

A view over the Brawbrandsøen lake in 1915.

1936 Director of Aarhus Stiftsbogtrykkeri A/S (established 1794), Holmgreen bought the villa. He had the local furniture producer, Thorsen Møbler, make a dining table and chairs for 12 persons along with other furniture for the villa, all of massive oak, so that his 10 children couldn't spoil the furniture.

1943 The dentist Kerting owned the house for a year. He had two windows in the living room made into one large window (400 x 220 cm) as well as the dark wooden ceiling painted white so that his wife could get some light.

The garden was 15,000 m2 (3.8 acres) in 1977. The 12,000 m2 was cur off for 15 new houses built by Bikuben in late 1970's.

1944 - 1977 Chocolate Manufacturer Johannes Clausen owned the house and lived here with his wife and two sons. Clausen owned Elvirasminde Chocolate factory together with his brother, but later founded a the grocery store chain "Spar" on Søren Frichs Vej.

Johannes Clausen in the garden of Villa Nøjsomheden, 1958. He had lived in the suburb Risskov during the World War II and is said to have bought this villa to get away from the resistence bombing the railroad next to his villa in Risskov. However, the Villa Nøjsomheden also had a railroad at the end of the garden, and the local reistance leader Frederik von Lillienskjoldever bombed the Germans train transports just there at the edge of the garden. Hence it took a few years till the war eneded som Clausen could sleep at night without getting waked up by bombs.

Another good story is that Clausen one day saw an advertisement in the newspaper for a "large dining table with furniture" which he bought - and later found out, from the driver who brought it to the villa, that the furniture had originally belonged to the villa (made by Thorsen Møbler for Homlgreen in 1936). The dining table with furniture lef the villa years later, just to be found again by Jytte Overgaard when she was looking for a suitable large dining table.

The horseshoe in the front of Villa Nøjsomheden, with a Volvo 444 parked. 1958.

1977 - 1979 Boligfonden Bikuben bought the house and the then 15.000 m2 park with the purpose to tear down the house and build 20 new houses on the ground. However, after having been empty and unused for two years the villa was spared, sold to Jytte Overgaard, and only 15 houses (instead of 20) were build in what had been the park of the villa.

Jytte Overgaard (first row to the right) in 1956.

1979 Jytte Overgaard (1942-2021) bought the villa for herself and her two sons. The villa housed her company that sewed curtains, and as the rooms was renovated one after the other, some of the rooms were rented out to tourists via Århus Turistbureau for few nights at the time. In latter years the rooms has been rented out to students for longer periods and a large kitchen with dining area was renovated in the cellar for them [1995].

In 1979 Jytte Overgaard saw an ad on a "large dining table" in the newspaper and bough it - and later found out that it was the very furniture that Holmgreen had gotten made by Thorsen Møbler for the villa in 1936 and which Clausen had bought back for the villa in 1944. Several of the furnitures carry drawings underneath which has been made by the kids during World War II, some of them making fun of Hitler.

• 1980 - 1985 the villa's cellar housed the comics studio "Hjelm Påbudt" where Thorsten Overgaard and four other comics drawers made comics.

• 1985-1989 the villa housed Thorsten Overgaard's advertising agency and publishing house AD ONE (sold to Execon in Copenhagen in 2000). By 1989 the advertising agency's 36 staff had offices on the 1st and 2nd floor, part of the ground floor and part of the basement before the acitivities were moved out of the villa to an office in Vester Alle in Aarhus.

Henrik N and Agnethe Dalby working on the third floor of the Villa Nøjsomheden in 1987 in Thorsten Overgaard's company.

• Thorsten Overgaard has lived in the villa 1979-1990 and 1993-1994 and moved back into the annex 2001-2017. He has actually had either office, room or apartment in all of the 24 rooms of the entire villa. His three children, Oliver, Caroline and Robin Isabella were born in Villa Nøjsomheden.

• Martin Overgaard (born 1963) has lived in the villa 1979-1987 and 1990-2001, and again from 2019. His son Philip Overgaard was born in Villa Nøjsomheden.

Thorsten Overgaard in the garden in 2014 with a wooden camera he built in the basement of Villa Nøjsomheden in 1980.

Things that go bump in the night and so on ...

• The villa has the "blue room" on the 1st floor in the north/west corner where "the blue lady" is said to come back in case the color of the walls are being changed from blue.
• In the wood next to the villa it is told that a "restless dog with eyes that light like fire" is living [ca. 1900].

The Blue Room of Villa Nøjsomheden [ca. 1992]

Meeting in the kitchen in 2016: Jytte with Robin Isabella and Robin's American tutor Terry Garcia.

jytte von Overgaard's garden, Villa Nøjsomheden.

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– Thorsten Overgaard