About us

The Mission Hotel in Viborg, located at Sct. Mathias Gade 5, was established on April 1, 1935. The white main building has served as a hotel for 88 years (as of 2023) and is thus Viborg’s oldest hotel.

The mansion was originally built in 1899 as a private residence for a wealthy family and was designed by Professor Hans Christian Amberg (1837-1919). He was a trained architect and became a professor in 1894. H.C. Amberg was heavily involved in restoration work and aimed to preserve everything of historical value, including Ribe Cathedral. In 1908-10, he constructed the spire of St. Nikolai Church for brewer Carl Jacobsen and reconstructed the church itself in 1915-17. In Viborg, he was known for his stepped gables, including those at Karnapgården, Sct. Mathias Gade 9, and the Savings Bank’s extension at Sct. Mathias Gade 51.

After its inauguration in 1935, the hotel went through a very turbulent first decade with difficult financial conditions and the wartime occupation. Things only stabilized when Viggo Nielsen and his wife Anna Bach purchased the hotel on January 4, 1948. This marked the beginning of a family-owned period that has lasted for over 75 years. The two sons, Ole and Gerner Bach Nielsen, took over ownership and management in 1972 following Viggo Nielsen’s untimely death. Under their leadership, the hotel expanded from 32 rooms to the current 115 suites, rooms, and apartments and also changed its name to the Palace Hotel along the way. In 1996, the first celebrity handprints were placed in the pavement in front of the hotel, inspired by Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. When the street was converted into a pedestrian zone, most of the tiles were removed and placed in the hotel’s entrance area, where they stand as our ‘Wall of Fame.’ In February 2023, Klaus Bach Nielsen, the nephew and grandson of Viggo Nielsen, became the director, marking the entry of the third generation of the Bach Nielsen family to continue running the hotel. To put Bach Nielsen’s long ownership into perspective, when Viggo Nielsen took over the hotel, there were stables in the backyard for guests’ horses, and today, there are charging stations for electric cars instead. They also had their own laundry facilities in the basement, raised their own beef cattle for the restaurant, and held a daily morning devotional service for employees and resident guests at the hotel for 40 years.