Gråbrødre Hospital is located on Gråbrødre Square, which is to find adjacent to Ove Sprogøe Square and is connected to the pedestrian zones. In the time of Hans Christian Andersen, Gråbrødre Square was an entire complex of church, hospital and “dårekiste”” (bedlam), an institution for the insane. Today, some of the old buildings can still be found on Gråbrødre Square.
Hans Christian Andersen has some connection with Gråbrødre hospital, since his grandmother took care of the garden, his grandfather was admitted as a madman in 1823 and since his mother died from alcoholism in 1833 in the hall under the roof of the almshouse – called “”Doctors Boder”” (booths of the doctor). Hans Christian Andersen would visit this place and hear stories from the old and poor, and he shivered in fear of the mentally retarded or insane institutionalized in the hospital.