A military church was built at Kastellet in 1670 but its modest size only allowed it to serve the personnel at the fortress.
In 1815 the family moved from a bakery near Hillerød to Kastellet, a military fortification area in Copenhagen, where his father was head baker.
When Christian IV expanded the fortification of the inner city, he also moved the gate to near Kastellet, thus introducing the confusion that the Eastern Gate is located more northerly than the Northern Gate.
Today, the city ramparts are gone and instead the tradition is to walk along Langelinie on Copenhagen's waterfront or on the fortification of Kastellet, though only few follow this tradition depending on the spring weather.