Hans Christian Andersen died in Copenhagen in 1875. He died on 4 August at the home of his close friends, the Melchior family, after suffering from liver cancer.
Andersen had spent much of his adult life travelling through Europe, but Copenhagen remained central to his career and final years. He was buried in the Assistens Cemetery, one of the city’s best-known historic cemeteries.
His death came after decades of international fame. By then, Andersen was celebrated not only for fairy tales but also for novels, travel books, poems and plays. A common mix-up is placing his death in Odense, where he was born; Odense was his birthplace, while Copenhagen was the location of his death.