Amalienborg Slot, Christian VII's Palace, Amalienborg Slotsplads
Tel. 33 92 64 51
Subway: Kongens Nytorv
Bus: 1A, 15, 19, 26,
29, 650S, 901, 902
Open: Jul- Sep: Sat & Sun
Amalienborg is a castle complex in Frederiksstaden in Copenhagen
and is the main residence of the Danish Royal Family.
The
complex consists of four almost identical mansions that surround an
octagonal castle square. Amalienborg is a masterpiece of Danish
architecture and probably the finest piece of Rococo architecture in
Denmark and perhaps one of the finest examples in Europe. The Danish
Cultural Heritage Agency has put Amalienborg and its surroundings on
the Danish tentative list of natural and cultural works that are
being sought for inclusion on UNESCO's list of world cultural
heritage.
The area where Frederiksstaden is located was first
incorporated into Copenhagen during the large urban expansion that
Christian IV undertook. However, the area east of Bredgade was abandoned
as a commercial and residential quarter. In 1660, Queen Sophie Amalie
had purchased a number of plots in the undeveloped area to build a
pleasure castle to replace her country estate Dronningens Enghave
outside Vesterport, which was destroyed during the Swedish siege of
Copenhagen 1658-1660. Despite the bad times after the Swedish Wars, the
queen managed to raise funds so that in 1667-1673 she could build the
pleasure castle Sophie Amalienborg. The building was not large. It was
built in the baroque style of an Italian villa: a "casino" with a high
ground floor, a main floor and a low mezzanine. The main wing had a flat
roof that ended with a balustrade. In the middle stood a tower, shaped
like a "Belvedere". Queen Sophie Amalie loved her new pleasure castle
and died here in 1685. Four years later, the 16-year-old castle burned
down. On the occasion of Christian V's 44th birthday on 15 April 1689, a
festive performance was held in an opera house, which was a temporary
wooden building built close to the castle. The king was delighted with
the performance and wanted it repeated for the public. But by then the
decoration of the opera house with silk wallpaper, moss, juniper rice
and fruit had become clumsy. By accident, one of the 800 oil lamps fell
and the fire caught the decoration and ignited the building. When all
the doors opened inwards, the sad result was that 180 people burned
inside, and the opera house and castle were reduced to a heap of ruins.
There are quite a few memories from the disaster around Copenhagen.
Inside the gate to Ny Vestergade no. 20 is a plaque: "Johan Jürgen, one
of the Staden's 32 men and director of the Children's House, built this
farm in 1683.
Quote Fate abruptly turned his fortune,
two
daughters burned inside,
when Amalienborg in flames,
shone above
the city's woes.
After the terrible fire, only the eastern wing, which contained a
church, as well as the large garden, had survived the fire. The church
was used by the army until Garrison's Church was completed in 1706. The
garden and the surrounding areas were rearranged according to plans
drawn up by the versatile Ole Rømer. These construction works were a
preparation for Christian V's dream project – the construction of a new
large residence castle in the Amalienborg area as a replacement for the
old-fashioned and impractical Copenhagen Castle. When Denmark had a
fairly good relationship with Sweden around 1690, it became possible to
get the Swedish court architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger to present
his proposal. In 1694, he submitted a proposal for a large three-winged
castle – not unlike Stockholm's Castle, which Tessin was building. But
there was a lack of money for the implementation, and after the death of
Christian V in 1699, the plans were shelved. The successor, Frederik IV,
had part of the area laid out for a muster ground for the Copenhagen
garrison. The architect J. C. Krieger built an octagonal pavilion in
which the king could stay during the troop reviews.
The four
noble mansions
Christian 6. had no interest in the garden on the
Sophie Amalienborg grounds. Several Copenhagen merchants and shipowners
expressed a desire to use the land for development. These thoughts were
only combined with Frederik V's accession to the throne with the desire
to mark the 300th anniversary of the Oldenburg royal family on the
Danish throne by building a completely new district, Frederiksstaden.
The idea was to create a new monumental quarter with a splendid new
church, Frederikskirken or Marmorkirken. The streets of the district
were to meet in a central square, which was to be surrounded by four
identical mansions ("Hotels") – built by private builders, but according
to a common idea by the court architect Nicolai Eigtved. These mansions
are today's Amalienborg. Construction began in 1750.
However,
Eigtved was not the originator of the octagonal square. The idea came
from the German architect and painter Marcus Tuscher, who made both a
plan and a draft for a fountain with an equestrian statue in a heavy,
old-fashioned Italian baroque style à la Bernini. That monument was also
executed as a now lost model by Johann Christoph Petzold. The fountain
did not go down well, and Tuscher died as early as 1751, but the square
was executed as an octagon – albeit in a somewhat different design and
with different measurements than those found on his draft. In the middle
of the castle square, the equestrian statue of Frederik V came to stand.
It was made by Jacques-François-Joseph Saly and inaugurated after many
years of delay in 1771. Asiatic Kompagni, which A.G. Moltke was
president of, assumed part of the cost of the plinth, among other
things. for the monument, which became a costly affair for the company.
The noble builders
It was natural that the likely originator of
the idea of Frederiksstaden was found among the four builders: Frederik
V's good friend, Chief Court Marshal Count Adam Gottlob Moltke, Privy
Councilor Count Christian Frederik von Levetzau, Baron Joachim von
Brockdorff and Privy Councilor Baron Severin Leopoldus Løvenskiold. They
all belonged to the new nobility. Løvenskiold had to sell his unfinished
mansion to Dowager Countess Anna Sophie Schack in 1754, as the project
had simply left his finances in ruins.
The construction of the
mansions
Work on all four mansions began in 1750. Where the mansions
had to be identical on the outside, there was room for variation in the
interior. Moltke's mansion was the first; which was completed in 1754.
Eigtved personally supervised the furnishing, and the interior became
the finest. Eigtved died a few months after the inauguration of the
mansion. Work on the other mansions continued under the direction of
other architects such as Laurids de Thurah, Christian Joseph Zuber and
Philip de Lange. Brockdorff's mansion was completed in 1758, Levetzau's
in 1760, while Schack's mansion was somewhat delayed, among other things
due to the change of ownership in 1754 and a fire shortly afterwards; it
was completed in 1755.
Christian VII's Palace, or Moltke's Palace - the south-west palace,
is the queen's guest and representation palace.
Christian VIII's
Palace, or Levetzau's Palace – the northwestern palace, Amalienborg
Museum.
Frederik VIII's Palace, or Brockdorff's Palace - the
north-east palace, formerly Queen Ingrid's residence, houses the crown
prince's residence and has been refurbished and modernized for use by
the crown prince couple.
Christian IX's Palace, or Schack's Palace -
the south-eastern palace, is the queen's residence.
Each mansion has
a main gate and a kitchen gate; the main gates are at Amaliegade, the
kitchen gates are at Frederiksgade.
Conversion to royal residence
and later events
In 1794, after the fire of Christiansborg Castle,
Amalienborg was taken over by the royal house, and C.F. Harsdorff was
put in charge of rebuilding the palaces and connecting the crown
prince's residence (Schack's Palace) with the king's (Moltke's Palace)
by a temporary elegant colonnade, which was constructed of plastered
timber. Harsdorff raised all the intermediate buildings of the mansions
between the main building and the pavilions by one floor and closed down
the vestibules in all four mansions to make room.
Fortunately,
Harsdorff was aware of the facility's qualities, and his elevations of
the mansions' intermediate buildings between the main building and
pavilions were done in plaster, so that his intervention could be
distinguished from Eigved's original sandstone facades.
Only
after the Easter crisis in 1920 did Amalienborg become the royal house's
permanent residence.
During Denmark's occupation on 9 April 1940, Amalienborg was also
approx. 5:50 attacked by German forces that had landed at Langelinie.
The officer on duty, Captain Poul Henningsen, ordered the guards forward
to the Residence Palace to fight the advancing German soldiers. Later,
the fighting was stopped and the Germans decided not to move into the
castle. Three guards were injured.
During Operation Safari on 29
August 1943, however, Amalienborg was occupied by German troops. At the
castle was a guard force consisting of 30 privates and commanders. On
the night of August 29 at At 4:05 a German colonel accompanied by a
lieutenant and three machine gunners requested an interview with H.K.H.
Crown Prince Frederik (the later Frederik 9th). After the two German
officers had left the Crown Prince, the Crown Prince gave instructions
that no resistance should be offered to a German occupation of the
castles. Regarding the disarmament, the crown prince ordered that the
weapons should be laid down if another arrangement could not be achieved
through negotiation. Soon after, German soldiers arrived, a total of
approx. 200 men. The posts were withdrawn and the weapons gathered
outside the guard and taken over by the Germans, after which the guard
marched to the barracks and were interned.
The police corps of
the Danish cities were arrested on 19 September 1944 and deported to
Germany. The police guard at Amalienborg, who had protected the king
after the Life Guard had been disarmed on 29 August 1943, defended
himself so resolutely that the Germans later announced that it "had been
a misunderstanding" when they wanted to intern the guards. On the Danish
side, two policemen and the palace manager in Det Gule Palæ were
wounded, while as many as 20 Germans were killed and twice as many
wounded. Among those killed was SS-Oberscharführer Fritz Himmel of the
Peter Group. Damage from German cannon fire can still be seen at the
castle, where a commemorative plaque was erected in 1952.
Although the police were taken over by the Germans in 1944, Amalienborg
was still guarded by a Danish police force right up to 4 May 1945.
Amalienborg castle square was the only place where no armed German was
allowed to set foot during the occupation. First they were rejected by
the lifeguard on April 9, and later by the police. The guard force was
180 men, who later formed the "Amalienborg Club".
Since 1993,
Amalienborg has been a candidate for admission to UNESCO's World
Heritage List.
Christian VII's Palace or Moltke's Palace was built in the years
1750-1754 for High Court Marshal Adam Gottlob Moltke according to
drawings by Eigtved. The best craftsmen and artists of the time were
involved in the construction, including the court sculptor Johann
Christoph Petzold, who was responsible for all the external sandstone
decoration, as well as the court carpenters Louis-Augustin le Clerc,
Dietrich Schäffer, the sculptor Bogislav Löffler and the plasterer
Giovanni-Battista Fossati, who was contracted for the decoration in the
interior. The result was a mansion of exceptionally high quality, and
the knight's hall is considered among the most distinguished Rococo
rooms in Europe. Since the efforts of these artists at Christiansborg
were lost in the fire of 1794, Moltke's Palace is one of the few places
where you can imagine what the suites at the royal palace looked like.
Eigtved died in 1754 a few months after the inauguration of the
mansion, and Moltke replaced him with the French architect Nicolas-Henri
Jardin. He completed the few outstanding works and furnished a table
hall in the new Louis Seize style. In the knight's hall, he had
paintings that later arrived in Denmark by Louis Tocqué and François
Boucher. They did not compromise Eigtved's basic idea. The Taffelsalen
ranks as the knights' hall among the finest in Danish architecture.
In the 1770s, Harsdorff decorated Countess Moltke's bedroom in the
Louis Seize style.
After the fire of Christiansborg Castle in
1794, the Danish royal family was left without a roof over their heads.
A few days later, Moltke's Palace was bought for Christian 7th and
Schack's Palace for Crown Prince Frederik (6th). Architect C.F.
Harsdorff was put in charge of connecting the mansions. They raised the
middle buildings one storey to alleviate the space problems, and the two
mansions were connected by the colonnade with a corridor at the height
of the first floor, supported by eight Ionic columns, which allowed the
passage of traffic in Amaliegade.
To make room for the court
staff, the floor in the vestibule was raised and divided into three
offices. The mansion was now called Christian VII's Palace. After
Christian VII's death in 1808, Frederik VI used the mansion for his
court staff. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs used parts of the mansion
in the period 1852-1885, but from 1885 the mansion was exclusively used
as a guest and representation palace. It has, however, been a royal
residence for short periods when renovations to other of the residence
palaces have made it necessary. In 1971-75, a small kindergarten and
then a school for princes Frederik and Joachim were set up in the
mansion.
In 1982, the Palaces and Estates Agency (today the
Agency for Castles and Cultural Properties) began an external
restoration of the mansion with a complete replacement of the worn
sandstone cladding. In 1993-1996, the board carried out a major internal
restoration, whereby the vestibule was recreated and there were again
three doors in the middle risalit towards the castle square. In 1999,
the restoration was awarded a medal from the European conservation
organization Europa Nostra.
Christian VIII's Palace or Levetzau's Palace was built for Privy
Councilor Christian Frederik von Levetzau in 1750-1760. After the death
of court architect Nicolai Eigtved in 1754, Lauritz de Thurah loyally
completed the construction according to his drawings. The finished
mansion was not qualitatively on par with Moltke's Mansion, because the
financial resources did not flow as abundantly. Levetzau died in 1756,
and the mansion remained in the family's possession (Stamhuset Restrup)
until 1794.
After the fire of Christiansborg Castle in 1794,
Hereditary Prince Frederik bought the mansion. At the sale, the Levetzau
family stipulated that the count's arms were never to be removed from
the building. Thus, the mansion continues to be adorned by the arms of
Levetzau and his wife Sophie Rantzau next to the Royal Coat of Arms. The
prince had the painter and architect Nicolai Abildgaard modernize it in
the new empire style. When the crown prince died in 1805, his son Prince
Christian Frederik took over both the mansion and the architect.
Abildgaard died in 1809, and the new interior came to a standstill.
In 1839, Prince Christian Frederik became king under the name
Christian 8th, and the palace was then called Christian 8th's Palace.
The king died in 1848 and his dowager queen in 1881. From 1885 the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs used part of the mansion. In 1898, it was
furnished as a residence for Crown Prince Christian (10th) and Princess
Alexandrine, and after Christian X's death in 1947, the mansion was made
available to Crown Prince Knud.
In the 1980s, the Palace and
Property Agency began a major restoration of the mansion. There were,
among other things, furnished residence and representation rooms for
Crown Prince Frederik. A repository for the Queen's Hand Library and a
new museum for the Glücksburg royal family, the Amalienborg Museum, were
also set up.
Frederik VIII's Palace, or Brockdorff's Palace, was built in 1750-60
for Baron Joachim von Brockdorff under the direction of court architect
Nicolai Eigtved. After the architect's death in 1754, general architect
Lauritz de Thurah also completed this mansion. The builder died as early
as 1763, and the rich Adam Gottlob Moltke in the neighboring mansion
acquired the building. Two years later he sold it to King Frederik V.
From 1767, the mansion functioned as the Landcadet Academy. During a
rebuild, the ceiling in the Knight's Hall, which was used for
gymnastics, was lowered. In 1788, the land cadets were replaced by sea
cadets, and after the Battle of Reden in 1801, more sea cadets were
needed. The space problem was solved by raising the middle buildings of
the mansion by one floor, as had happened with the other mansions a few
years before under Harsdorff's management.
The cadets had to
leave the mansion when Frederik VI wanted his daughter Princess
Vilhelmine and the heir to the throne Prince Frederik (7th) to live here
after their wedding. In 1827-28, the architect Jørgen Hansen Koch
carried out a thorough modernization in the Empire style. From the
dissolution of the marriage in 1837 until Crown Prince Frederik (8th)
moved in in 1869, the mansion housed changing members of the royal
family. The crown prince became king in 1906, and the mansion was now
named after him. He only managed to reside here as king for six years.
In 1935-1936, the building was renovated by Kgl. building inspector
Thorvald Jørgensen for use by the heir to the throne couple, Crown
Prince Frederik (9th) and Crown Princess Ingrid. Queen Ingrid lived in
the mansion until her death in November 2000.
In 2004-2009,
Frederik VIII's Palace was thoroughly renovated as a residence for Crown
Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, with associated representation
and administration rooms for the Crown Prince's court. During the
restoration, several hidden stucco ceilings came to light. Royal
building inspector Erik Einar Holm's Tegnestue assisted by Arkitema was
responsible for the restoration. The mansion's representative rooms are
equipped with works of art by Kasper Bonnén, Jesper Christiansen, Olafur
Eliasson, Erik A. Frandsen, Signe Guttormsen, Eske Kath, John Kørner,
Tal R, Morten Schelde and Kathrine Ærtebjerg.
Christian IX's Palace or Schack's Palace was begun in 1750 according
to Nicolai Eigtved's project. After his death, the building was first
managed by the architects Christian Joseph Zuber and later by Philip de
Lange. Around 1754, the builder, Ghejmekonferensråd Severin Løvenskiold,
was in financial trouble, and Countess Anna Sophie Schack took over the
mansion with the intention of her stepson, Hans Schack. A fire shortly
afterwards delayed completion for another few years.
In 1757,
Hans Schack became the son-in-law of Supreme Court Marshal Adam Gottlob
Moltke. This benefited the slow construction, as the father-in-law lent
his best craftsmen to complete the interiors. The delay in construction
also meant that the interiors were more influenced by the new style,
Louis Seize, than the other three mansions.
After the royal
family's purchase of Moltke's and Schack's Palaces in 1794, they were
connected by the mentioned colonnade by Harsdorff, the vestibules were
converted into rooms and the intermediate buildings were raised.
The crown prince, who had ruled for his sick father after the coup in
1784, became king as Frederik VI in 1808. After his death in 1839 and
his wife's in 1852, the palace was used by, among others, the Supreme
Court and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1863, the mansion
was made available to Christian IX, "Europe's father-in-law". He lived
here until his death in 1906, after which the home stood untouched until
a registration of the effects took place in 1948. They are now part of
the Amalienborg Museum.
In 1967, the mansion underwent an elegant
renovation for the heir to the throne, Princess Margrethe, and Prince
Henrik. Queen Margrethe now uses the mansion as a residence.
Amalienborg Palace Square is the name of the square framed by
Amalienborg's four mansions. Along the southeast-northwest axis of the
square, there is a clear view to the northwest of the Marble Church and
to the southeast of the Opera House on the other side of the harbour.
In 1886, the square's pavements and the equestrian statue's
surroundings were covered with an Italian-inspired mosaic based on
drawings by Johan Daniel Herholdt. The coating around the equestrian
statue was removed when the statue was restored in 1998.
The Amalienborg axis is called the monumental axis, which begins at
Frederikskirken and continues past the equestrian statue of Frederik 5.
He looks towards the church's dome. The church and the four noble
mansions and the bourgeois settlement of Frederiksstaden symbolized the
social hierarchy: the absolute king has his power from God and
distributed it on via the nobility and his earthly regiment. Back then
there were timber yards by the harbor and the harbor side was the
unattractive side, which is why the two mansions farthest from the
church, Brockdorff's and Schack's, were the least desirable. The axis
ran between the church and the equestrian statue.
In more recent
times, the meaning of the axis was changed and extended towards Holmen
during the construction of Amaliehaven and the Opera on Holmen, both
donated by A.P. Møller and wife Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller's Foundation
for general purposes. It is said that the axis now connects the church,
the royal house, trade and art (God, the Royal House and Mærsk).
The construction of the Opera has affected the experience of Amalienborg
Palace Square as a space, as the opera house is already experienced from
a position in front of the Marble Church and Bredgade as a large volume
that forms the background for the equestrian statue, instead of the blue
sky. There are divided opinions about the spatial impact of the Rococo
building. Critics believe that the Opera belittles the elegant facility,
and that the Opera's designers have ignored the spatial effect of the
building's large scale. They further argue that the imitation of an
architectural axial model from the Baroque is unsuccessful, outdated and
irrelevant, and that it bypasses the influence of modernism in the 20th
century. The supporters believe that the Opera and its location add
monumentality to the urban space and are in line with the architectural
concept that has created Frederiksstaden.
When Kurt Thorsen was
still the owner of Dokøen, where the Opera was built, he designed a
residential building on the plot, where the axis should have been marked
by a portal. Such a solution would to some extent have preserved the sky
as a visual framing of the equestrian statue.