Christiansborg Castle, or simply Christiansborg, on Slotsholmen
in central Copenhagen is home to Denmark's parliament, the
Folketing, the Supreme Court and the Prime Minister's Office. In
addition, the Royal Palace continues to use several parts of
Christiansborg, including the Royal Representation Rooms, the Castle
Church and the Royal Stables.
The current castle is the
latest in a long line of buildings that have stood on the site since
the 12th century, and which have been the seat of central power in
Denmark since the 15th century. It still houses the most important
central institutions of state power and is often referred to as the
Rigsborgen or simply Borgen.
Christiansborg was burned down
and rebuilt twice, and today's Christiansborg still includes parts
from the three constructions of the castle. The buildings around the
riding track (the stables, the riding house and the Theater Museum
in the Hofteatret) are from the first Christiansborg; the same
applies to Thorvaldsen's Museum, which was originally a carriage
house, but which now appears very different. From the second
Christiansborg, the Castle Church is the only whole building that
remains. However, there are quite a few details and parts that have
been reused in various places.
Absalon's castle
According to Saxo Grammaticus, the first
castle on the site was built in 1167 by Bishop Absalon of Roskilde,
who had previously been given the town of Havn by King Valdemar the
Great. The castle consisted of a ring wall up to 5 meters high,
which enclosed a castle square with various buildings, including a
palace, chapel and various smaller buildings.
In 1182,
Absalon bequeathed the castle to Roskilde bishopric for perpetual
ownership, but reserved the right to use the castle for life. Upon
Absalon's death in 1201, the castle passed to the bishopric of
Roskilde, but a few decades later a long-lasting power struggle
began between the royal power and the church, where dominion over
the castle and town wavered back and forth between the king and the
bishop.
In 1368, the castle was conquered by the Hanseatic
States and demolished the following year.
Copenhagen Castle
On top of the remains of Absalon's castle, a new castle was built in
the following years, which in time came to bear the name Copenhagen
Castle. Roskilde's bishops retained ownership of the castle until
King Eric of Pomerania claimed the castle in 1417 and thus – after
more than 200 years of disputes – definitively secured ownership of
the fortress on Slotsholmen for the royal power.
It became
the royal residence when Christopher of Bavaria moved to Copenhagen
in 1443, and from the middle of the 15th century onwards, Copenhagen
Castle served as the main residence of the Danish kings and the
center of government. In the following centuries, numerous
reconstructions and extensions of this castle were carried out, and
when Frederik IV undertook another thorough reconstruction in the
18th century, the old foundation began to give way. It was
demolished in 1731 to make way for a new magnificent castle: the
first Christiansborg Castle.
The castle was under what is now
Christiansborg's main wing, and the ruins of Absalon's Castle and
Copenhagen Castle were excavated when what is now Christiansborg was
built in the early 1900s. There is public access to the excavated
ruins.
First Christiansborg
When Christian VI became king
in 1730, the old residence castle was cramped and dark, and he
decided to build a completely new castle from scratch; it was to be
the first Christiansborg. The castle's architect was Elias David
Häusser, who, however, had to leave most of the interior design to
Laurids de Thurah and Nicolai Eigtved.
Work began in 1731
with the demolition of Copenhagen Castle. Much surrounding land was
purchased and cleared, and extensive piling work was carried out in
order to build over the old moat and the filled areas. The
foundation stone was laid by the king on 21 April 1733, and then the
masonry work was underway.
The castle was ready for
habitation in 1740, and on 5 October the stables were also declared
ready to house the king's horses and carriages. The king's move-in
took place with pomp and splendor and a cannon salute on November
26, when the royal family moved out of the temporary residence at
Frederiksberg Castle.
Christiansborg now stood as a
magnificent four-winged Rococo palace with riding arenas and castle
church in the same place as the current one. It was extremely
expensive. The construction cost more than half of a year's income
for the entire kingdom, or as the value of all property in Zealand.
interior design
The castle had a total of 6 floors: Basement,
ground floor (or ladies' floor), mezzanine, king's floor, crown
prince's floor and the upper mezzanine; this floor plan was taken
over from Copenhagen Castle, but the naming was new. As the name
suggests, the royal couple had apartments on the royal floor with
the queen's apartment in the north wing (facing the castle church).
The rest of the floor was divided into the king's private rooms, the
representation hall and the Supreme Court hall. The ladies' floor
was furnished with offices and the staff lived upstairs.
First fire
For a good 50 years, a magnificent court life unfolded
at the castle. But on 26 February 1794, a fire broke out in a
chimney near the crown prince's quarters in the main wing. The fire
developed violently over the next hours, and a large crowd worked to
save not only the castle and its valuable contents, but also the
surrounding districts, over which the embers rained down.
The
castle with the castle church burned down, and many of the castle's
residents suffered heavy losses. Large amounts of the king's
possessions and works of art were lost.
Other Christiansborg
After the fire in 1794, several initiatives were taken to have a new
castle built, but the situation was further worsened the following
year by the Copenhagen fire. Finally, in 1803, the king, Christian
VII, set up a commission to plan and supervise the construction of
partly a new castle and partly a new combined town hall and
courthouse for Copenhagen.
The second Christiansborg was
designed by C.F. Hansen who had submitted a project proposal in
1800. A large part of the outer walls and inner partitions survived
the fire and were reused in the new castle. A significant difference
was that the tower and the wing facing the riding arena were largely
removed. In the former castle this wing was the largest, but in C.F.
At Hansen's suggestion, it was opened and the two remaining side
wings were connected by a colonnade. The castle was therefore quite
a bit smaller than the previous one and this also meant that the
main entrance was now in the facade facing the Castle Square.
The modern style was classicism, which had different stylistic
ideals than the rococo and baroque of previous times. They wanted
larger unbroken wall surfaces and this was achieved, among other
things, by reducing the number of window sections in the facade
facing the Palace Square. Together with other architectural tricks,
he reused the burnt brickwork and yet created a building with a
completely different expression.
interior design
The
castle had the same 6-storey layout as the first Christiansborg.
Again, the royal residence was arranged on the royal floor, which
was roughly divided into the queen's private quarters in the north
wing facing the Palace Church, the king's private quarters facing
the Palace Square, as well as the knights' hall and other halls in
the south wing facing the Chancellery building. The crown prince's
floor was initially empty, as there was no crown prince. The ladies'
floor contained administration, but later came to also house the
Riksdag and the Supreme Court. The main entrance was at the gate
from the Palace Square, from where the King's Staircase led up to
partly the king's own apartment and partly the representation rooms.
There was also an entrance in the north wing of the castle courtyard
from which the Queen's Staircase led up.
The castle church
was also rebuilt from the old walls, although there had been plans
to settle for a smaller chapel.
Application
Since large
parts of the city had burned almost at the same time as the first
Christiansborg, it took some time before the castle's reconstruction
could begin. The ruin, the adjacent buildings and the squares around
it were used for many things in the destroyed city – in the
basement, for example, temporary housing was created. When the
building work finally began, it took almost 25 years, but on 1
November 1828 the castle was at least complete enough to be
inaugurated.
But the king did not show much interest in the
castle. After the burning castle had to be evacuated, the royal
family had taken up residence at Amalienborg and felt comfortable
there. Neither Frederik VI, who formally became king in 1808, nor
Christian VIII, who had grown up at Amalienborg, wanted to move
permanently to Christiansborg. Despite that, the interior made the
castle a royal palace and it was then also used for representation
and accommodation of guests. It was only Frederik VII who actually
took Christiansborg into use after he became king in 1848; among
other things, he assembled the court's administration at the castle.
However, the king himself often moved around and mostly used
Christiansborg as his winter residence.
It was at that time
that the events of the country's transition from autocracy to
popular rule unfolded. In March 1848, a people's train gathered in
front of Christiansborg, which resulted in Denmark getting its first
democratic constitution. When the monarchy ended, the king's
complete right to use the state's property and income also
disappeared, and the castle was then handed over by law to the
Ministry of the Interior, as it could not be maintained within the
framework of the king's private budget. The transfer required a lot
of consideration because practical and financial conditions for both
the king and the state had to be taken into account. After that, the
castle was the property of the state, but the king had the right of
use and had to pay for the internal maintenance. It ended with the
King ceding a large part of the castle to the Rigsdagen, which began
its activities in January 1850 in the same wing of Christiansborg as
the one where the Parliament Hall is located today.
Second
fire
The second Christiansborg burned on 3 October 1884. People
had otherwise been aware of the danger of fire, having learned from
experience with the first Christiansborg. Thus, there were fire
walls, iron doors, guards, and extinguishing equipment, but the
building had the weakness that there were a number of cavities
through which the fire could spread. The fire started near the
Rigsdagsalen and again it was a tiled stove that caused it. It
spread along the middle wing and the south wing and after a while
they gave up on saving the castle and instead concentrated on the
church and the riding track complex, which they managed to save with
a dramatic effort. However, the fire had been slowed down so much
along the way that large parts of the castle managed to be emptied
of contents, archives, books, silverware etc., so the losses were
not nearly as great as in the previous fire.
Third Christiansborg
Times were now very different from the
previous reconstruction (ie the building of the second
Christiansborg, which had begun in 1806). Democracy had been
introduced, and numerous parties and interest groups had opinions on
what the next Christiansborg should look like. The political picture
was characterized by tensions between the Right and the United Left,
and the two groups had different views, particularly on the mixing
of the royal palace and the parliament building.
Immediately after the fire, alternative homes had to be found for
Christiansborg's institutions, but it was expected that this would be
short-lived and temporary, as bids were quickly sent for the Danish-born
architect Theophilus Hansen, who was asked for a proposal for a new
castle.
The county council, however, rejected Hansen's proposal,
and despite him trying to modify it, he was put out of the game when a
law was passed in 1887 about an open competition. Theophilus Hansen
found it difficult to accept this refusal, and in the following years he
submitted several presentations, which became increasingly unrealistic.
However, no satisfactory proposals came in, and they therefore tried
another competition with less stringent requirements. A proposal by
Ferdinand Meldahl and Albert Jensen was quite promising, but for various
practical and political reasons the Construction Act was not adopted
before the change of system in 1901, when the Liberals formed
government. Reconstruction was now high on the agenda, and on 6 October
1903 the Rigsdagen passed a law stating that Christiansborg Castle was
to be rebuilt in such a way that, in particular, the necessary buildings
were provided, either together or separately, partly for use by the king
for representation and for a similar purpose, partly for use by the
Reichstag. A commission was set up and another competition launched,
despite constant discussions about what Christiansborg should actually
contain. The major stumbling block was the mixing of the Riksdag and the
royal palace, which met with strong criticism both from the political
side, as the members of the Riksdag did not want to live as guests in
the king's palace, and partly from architects, who argued that the
different functions should be distributed to different buildings with
different architectural expression. The commission had 26 members, but
only a few of these – five – were architects. The five architects were
professors Hans J. Holm, Ferdinand Meldahl and H.B. Storck, Ulrik
Plesner and Axel Berg.
Despite the criticism, the competition was held in 1904-05. According
to the architect Carl Brummer, who had the quote from Hans J. Holm's
assistant Jesper Tvede, Hans J. Holm said at the first hanging of the
submitted proposals: "Now it is not about finding the best Project, but
about finding who stands behind the projects so that we can get the
right man to build the castle." Holm alluded to architect Martin Nyrop
as the "right man", and the competition for the castle became to a large
extent a reflection of the conflict of the time between the historicist
architects, who Meldahl represented, and the national romantics, to whom
Nyrop belonged. Carl Brummer had worked for Meldahl, but did not
identify with either wing.
Contestants participated anonymously.
Martin Nyrop's project turned out to be surprisingly poor. The
commission awarded three projects in the first row and two projects in
the second row. In the first row came the three contributions from
Martin Nyrop, Andreas Clemmensen and Thorvald Jørgensen. In the second
row, the awarded contributions were a project by Christian Sylow and
Vilhelm Fischer and one by Carl Brummer and V.J. Mørk-Hansen. According
to Brummer himself, his and Mørk-Hansen's anonymity was broken by an
indiscretion. The commission had guessed that Brummer and Mørk-Hansen's
project was designed by Johannes Magdahl Nielsen, and placed it in the
first row, but when it discovered its actual authors, it was shot down
to the second row. Brummer says that he had his and Mørk-Hansen's
project photographed and showed the photographs to architect Caspar
Leuning Borch. However, Borch was a friend of Axel Berg, to whom he
revealed the origin of the project.
Only the three architects
with contributions awarded in the first row were invited to proceed with
the projects. According to the conditions, the submitted projects could
not be published. This provision caused great criticism in the public,
and i.a. On 8 April 1905, Mørk-Hansen and Brummer entered a reader's
letter in Nationaltidende, in which they demanded a public exhibition of
the projects. The criticism had an effect, and already at the end of
April an exhibition was organized. The publication meant that Brummer
and Mørk-Hansen's project was named the best by several dailies.
Christian Brandstrup praised the project in high notes in Politiken on
21 April 1905 and found that it had been committed a "hair-raising
injustice" against Brummer and Mørk-Hansen. Berlingske Tidendes was also
critical of the neglect of the two architects' castle project in its
coverage on 9 May 1905. Politiken held a poll among its readers. It
received 1464 responses, most of which advocated another competition.
With regard to the projects, Brummer and Mørk-Hansen's project was the
winner with 774 votes. Thorvald Jørgensens got 366 votes, while Andreas
Clemmensen had to make do with 78.
In Brummer and Mørk-Hansen's
project, the facade facing Slotspladsen was a reduced version of C.F.
Hansen's castle facade - albeit with richer sculptural decoration -
while the facade facing the riding track was considerably more baroque.
This facade was to have two semi-circular risalites as the end of the
side wings, which were connected by a lower wing with gallery and attic.
The roof was a hipped roof towards the Palace Square, but a mansard roof
towards the riding track. The castle was to have a tower like the first
Christiansborg with a spire inspired by Christians Kirkes. The two
architects had made a trip to Germany in 1903 to get an impression of
castles that could be converted into a new Christiansborg. In his review
in the Berlingske Tidende on 26 April 1905, the art historian Vilhelm
Wanscher was also enthusiastic about the baroque effect in Brummer's and
Mørk-Hansen's project. Due to the ongoing criticism of the competition's
results, the Academic Architects' Association held a meeting on the
subject, where P.V. Jensen Klint joined the chorus of critics and gave
his support to the Brummer-Mørk-Hansen project.
It ended with
Thorvald Jørgensen's proposal being adopted in April 1906, despite many
loud protests against both the building's appearance and content.
The result was that the castle had to contain the same functions as
before the fire: the Reichstag, the Supreme Court and the controversial
representation rooms for the king. The king's premises were initially
intended exclusively for representative purposes, but that changed when,
after his accession in 1912, Christian X announced that he would like to
live in the castle and move in. However, in 1922, when construction was
under way, the king changed his mind – presumably as an afterthought to
the Easter crisis – and now decided that he wanted to stay at
Amalienborg after all. However, work on the representation rooms
continued with minor changes.
Construction of the third Christiansborg began in the autumn of 1906,
a good 20 years after it had burned down. It was built on the same
foundation – and partly with the same outer walls – as the two previous
castles; it is altogether admirable that these parts of the outer walls
from 1736 have survived two great fires and are now part of their third
castle.
The first time was spent demolishing the parts of the
ruin that were not to be reused, and on 15 November 1907 the foundation
stone was laid. After that, the masonry work began, but this did not
mean that the project was decided. In part, there were some technically
conditioned changes such as e.g. the covering of the ruins from
Copenhagen Castle, the construction of a common heating plant or
adaptations to traffic conditions. But the most visible changes came
from Thorvald Jørgensen himself, of which three decisions in particular
significantly changed the appearance of the building: The characteristic
curved risalites (protrusions) towards the Palace Square were added, the
facade cladding was changed from plaster to granite, and the roof was
changed from a hipped roof to a mansard roof. The style ended up being
more distinctly neo-baroque, and the weight and solidity of the building
should emphasize the castle's importance as the political center of the
kingdom.
From a political point of view, the interior design in
particular came out in stormy discussions, both in terms of room
distribution and decoration. The king's changing attitudes towards his
residence also brought changes to the project. Labor struggles also ran
into the architect's problems, first in October 1910, when the
bricklayers went on strike, and then there were more work stoppages
among bricklayers and electricians.
However, the work progressed
anyway, and when the constitutional amendment in 1915 increased the
number of members in the Riksdag, they concentrated on getting the
Riksdag wing completed for occupancy at the next election in 1918. The
Supreme Court could take its premises into use in 1919. The building was
formally handed over to state on 16 December 1927, but was not yet
finished. The king was able to use his representation rooms on 12
January 1928, and with this the castle was officially considered
complete.
However, further changes were soon made, such as when
in 1934 two extra crowns were put on the tower and in 1937 the black
tiled roof was replaced with copper.
The castle building has three wings and is crossed by two gates: the
King's Gate and the Queen's Gate, which connect the inner castle
courtyard with the Castle Square and Prince Jørgens Gård respectively.
The King's Gate does not have much of a function, as none of the main
sections of the castle have an entrance from here; however, the King's
Gate has the entrance to the underground exhibition of the old castle
ruins. The Queen's Gate is the main entrance to the royal rooms in the
north wing.
The Supreme Court has its main entrance in Prins
Jørgens Gård and here the entrance from the King's Gate in the former
castle has been reused, which has now been lifted up to a location at
the end of the entrance stairs. The entrance to the Folketinget is
located in the Rigsdagsgården.
The castle is connected to the
surrounding buildings with three salary corridor buildings: Towards the
Castle Church you will find the Kirkeløngangen, and in the
Rigsdagsgården you will find partly the Cavalier salary corridor (also
called the Zahlkammerbygningen or Chancellery salary corridor), which
forms a connection to the old National Archives, and partly the
Kunstkammerløngangen. The salary buildings in the Rigsdagsgården were
furnished in the third Christiansborg with apartments for the chairmen
of the two chambers of the Riksdag.
At 106 metres, the tower is
the tallest in Copenhagen (almost a meter higher than the tower at
Copenhagen City Hall). The shape originally radiated a massive
heaviness, but the expression changed somewhat in 1934 when a wind vane
and two extra crowns were added. The skeleton is cast in reinforced
concrete and is one of the oldest concrete buildings in Denmark.
Materials and decoration
The facades are faced with granite; however,
with the exception of the lower floors in Prince Jørgen's farm, where
they have chosen to use sandstone that was reused from the former
castle. Granite has the advantage that it is very weather-resistant and
largely maintenance-free, but at the same time it means that the
decorative elements are quite rough, as this stone is not suitable for
carving finer details. On the living room and basement floor, stones
have been used that were collected and delivered on request from over
700 different parishes in Denmark. The many different stones provide a
certain play of color which is emphasized by the fact that the outside
of the stones are roughly hewn and therefore have a natural rough
surface.
Most of the stonework for the ornamentation of the
facade was produced by the sculptor Anders Bundgaard. Granite masks of
prominent men in Danish history (including Absalon, Tycho Brahe,
Grundtvig, Blicher, Tietgen and Dalgas) are placed above each window in
most of the ground floor (Prince Jørgens Gård excepted). In the herd you
also find the fathers of the constitution, who are all located around
the entrance of the Folketing in the Rigsdagsgården. Below is the
complete list of faces:
Towards the castle square:
Closest to
the Castle Church Bishop J. P. Munster and then in order (however it
should be noted that the two masks above the gate are not portraits):
Hans Tausen, Peder Oxe, Anders Sørensen Vedel, Tycho Brahe, Niels Juel,
Daniel Rantzau, Adam Oehlenschlæger, Architect C. F. Harsdorff, General
O. C. Bülow, C. V. Eckersberg, Bertel Thorvaldsen, J. P. E. Hartmann,
Ludvig Holberg, Søren Kierkegaard, Professor N. I. Fjord, Peder
Tordenskjold, J. N. Madvig, Absalon, Chr. D. Reventlow, Thomas Kingo.
Towards the Rigsdagsgaarden:
Closest to the connection building
with the ministerial building J. C. Drewsen and then: L. N. Hvidt, C.
Hall, Balthazar Christensen, Orla Lehmann, J. F. Schouw, A. F.
Tscherning, C. C. G. Andræ, A. F. Krieger, V. Bjerring, Algreen Ussing,
C. N. David, H. N. Clausen, P. D. Bruun , P.G. Bang, D.G. Monrad.
Towards the riding course:
Nearest at Rigsdagsgaarden Joh. Ewald
and then: St. St. Blicher, C. F. Tietgen, N. F. S. Grundtvig, H. C.
Ørsted, Niels Finsen, Niels W. Gade, E. Dalgas, H. C. Andersen, Fr.
Paludan-Müller, and then over the windows of the Supreme Court: A. P.
Bernstorff, Peder Reedtz, J. E. Larsen, Kr. Colbjørnsen, Kofod Anker,
Peder Griffenfeldt, A. S. Ørsted, J. Nellemann, Henrik Stampe, A. V.
Scheel.
Above the entrance to the Folketing you will find four
atlantes in granite that carry the balcony above; this entrance area is
popularly referred to as the "Gate of Pain". The original name of the
series of figures was "Det Daglige Slid" and was supposed to form a
strong composition as a counterpoint to the heavy granite castle. But
the distraught stone faces caused so much consternation when they were
revealed that money was raised for their removal. However, the figures
still exist and have been popularly named as "Earache", "Headache",
"Stomachache" and "Toothache".
The palace is roughly divided in the middle with the Parliament's
premises in the south wing and the Royal Palace's premises in the north
wing. There are six floors, just like the previous castles, but they are
distributed differently. The main floor is the 1st floor, Beletagen,
which in both wings contains the most significant rooms.
In
addition to the Royal Representation Rooms, the King's Wing also
contains the Supreme Court, which is located on the ground floor, and
the Prime Minister's Office, which is located in the premises that were
originally intended as the monarch's private apartment above the Royal
Representation Rooms.
the Danish parliament
In the parliament
wing, there is a continuous walking hall which ends in the east of the
Folketingsalen and in the west of the former Landstingsal. Along the
Vandrehallen there are various rooms such as the chairman's room and the
parliamentary secretariat.
The hall was inaugurated in 1918, where the first meeting was held on
28 May. The members' chairs are placed in horseshoe-shaped rows with the
chairman's and speaker's chairs in the middle against the outer wall of
the castle square. To the sides, there are lodges in several floors
which are divided into, among other things. the press, the royal
household, former members and the public. The lectern is made from one
large oak log which was originally part of a stump mill on Møn. The
parliament hall extends over three floors and the interior is
characterized by the oak paneling of the walls and the large stucco work
on the upper walls and ceiling. On the wall behind the lectern there are
partly the large voting boards and partly a tapestry made by the artist
Berit Hjelholt. On the opposite wall hang two landscape paintings by
Olaf Rude.
The members have fixed seats and an attempt is made to
distribute them according to political observance, so that "left-wing"
and "right-wing" sit respectively. left and right (seen from the
lectern). In addition, the seats are typically distributed so that
rapporteurs and members with high seniority sit at the front and closest
to the lectern. The distribution thus becomes more difficult the more
different parties are represented and also if more seats are to be
obtained for ministers who are not members of the Norwegian Parliament.
The royal palace's representation rooms are located on the ground
floor of the royal wing and on the first floor. The premises are used by
the Royal Palace for official events such as gala dinners, evening
parties, New Year's cures, ambassador receptions, audiences and councils
of state.
There is access to the Royal Representation Rooms
through the Queen's Gate. From here, two main staircases lead further up
into the king's wing: Partly the King's Staircase, which via the
Drabantsalen forms the main access to the Representation Rooms, and
partly the Queen's Staircase, which is smaller and which continues up to
the upper floors.
On the ground floor at the foot of the King
Stairs are the Audience Chamber and the State Council Hall. On the first
floor are, among other things, the Throne Room, the Knights' Room, the
Table Room, the Library and the Alexander Room.
The Royal
Representation Rooms contain paintings, tapestries and works of art by
Danish artists such as Nicolai Abildgaard, Bertel Thorvaldsen, C.W.
Eckersberg, Laurits Tuxen, Joakim Skovgaard and Bjørn Nørgaard. The
premises also contain several pieces of furniture and fittings
originating from the other Christiansborg.
The oval throne room is located in the middle of the main wing facing the castle square. The hall's two thrones were designed by C.F. Hansen and originates from the other Christiansborg. The throne room is used in connection with the New Year's cure and for ambassadorial receptions. In addition, there is a tradition for newly appointed regents to be announced from the throne room's balcony.
The Knight's Hall is Christiansborg's largest room with a length of
40 meters and a ceiling height of 10 metres. There is room for
approximately 400 diners in the hall, which is used for receptions,
royal evening parties and gala dinners in connection with state visits.
The ceiling is made with large stucco work and paintings by Kræsten
Iversen; the marble floor is reused from the Royal Library, which was
rebuilt in 1910. When the Hall of Knights was built, the walls were
decorated with tapestries from Rosenborg's hall of knights, but in 2000
Queen Margrethe's Tapestry was hung. These 17 tapestries with motifs
from Denmark's history were Dansk Industri's gift to Queen Margrethe on
her 50th birthday in 1990. The tapestries were woven after designs by
Bjørn Nørgaard. Bjørn Nørgaard's life-size sketches and cartons were
subsequently acquired by the Art Museum Køge Sketch Collection, where
they form part of the permanent exhibitions.
Alexandersalen is named after Bertel Thorvaldsen's marble frieze of
Alexander the Great's entry into Babylon, which was set on the second
Christiansborg. The frieze partially survived the fire and was restored
and reinstalled on the current castle.
The Alexander Hall is used
for smaller receptions and official dinners.
During the reconstruction after the fire in 1884, a special fixture was designed for the castle, which was named the Christiansborg fixture. It was slightly modernized in 1930, but is otherwise still used today as a classic Danish faucet at Christiansborg and in other older buildings.
The building complex around Christiansborg Castle itself showcases the different architectural styles that have been predominant for the three different castles.
There has been a considerable team of horses at the castle and therefore also a considerable stable facility. Most of the ground floor of the riding track buildings, including the curves towards the Marmorbroen, were thus stables with space for a total of 87 riding horses and 165 driving horses. Parts of this stable complex still stand unchanged with its extravagant equipment of marble columns and marble cribs; other parts are set up as a carriage museum with the old horse-drawn carriages. Finally, some parts have been converted to other purposes such as offices and garages for the royal house's cars. Horse stables are still there with a number of horses used by the Royal Household. For a period after 1988, the horses of the Copenhagen Police Equestrian Department were also stabled.
The riding house is located in the northern riding track wing,
opposite the Hofteatret. The interior has largely not changed since it
was built together with the first Christiansborg. It is built with a
king's chair and a balcony so that spectators have been able to witness
the riding exercises and competitions that were held. The royal throne
is remarkable because it is one of the few preserved rooms with original
furnishings from the first castle.
The riding house is still used
to train the horses in the Royal Stables. In addition, the room is
occasionally used for various cultural events such as theater and opera
performances.
Copenhagen Castle had already been fitted with a theatre, but it was not included in the original Christiansborg. Christian 7th began to have performances performed in the dining room and it developed so that in 1766 it was decided to furnish an actual castle theatre. A room, which had been built as a harness store, above the stables in the southern wing of the riding track, was now converted into a theater hall. The room was decorated by the architect Nicolas-Henri Jardin and inaugurated in January 1767. Not much is known about its original appearance, as no pictures or detailed descriptions are known, and in 1842 the theater was rebuilt. It gradually came to function as an annex stage for the Royal Theater and in 1881 it was closed and most of the furniture sold. Since 1922, the building has housed the Theater Museum in the Hofteatret and the theater hall is now occasionally used for lectures, TV broadcasts and theater performances.
The marble bridge over Frederiksholms Kanal was designed by Nicolai
Eigtved and built together with the first Christiansborg in the period
1739-1745. It was originally the castle's main entrance and therefore
had to make an impression on the castle's visitors. Where it lands on
Slotsholmen, it is flanked by two pavilions adorned with sculptural
works which should give the entrance area an architectural whole.
Originally there was a large lattice gate fitted between the pavilions,
but as it was made of iron it rusted over time. It was removed in the
1830s.
The bridge is built of sandstone and has been renovated
several times. The most recent extensive restoration took place in the
period 1970-95.
The castle church belongs to the parts of Christiansborg that are
available to the Royal Palace. It is used for church ceremonies for
members of the royal family, mainly baptisms, confirmations and castrum
doloris. It is also used by the Folketing for church services in
connection with the opening of the Folketing.
There were already
churches at Absalon Castle and Copenhagen Castle. With the construction
of the first Christiansborg, the castle church was moved into an
independent building connected to the castle itself by a corridor. This
church was destroyed during the fire in 1794. Despite a decision to
demolish the church, it was rebuilt. The original church building did
not stand out from the rest of the castle, so there was nothing
architectural to highlight its function. It became different after C.F.
Hansen's reconstruction: Now it got a dome, large unbroken wall surfaces
and a temple entrance with four columns.
On 7 June 1992, a fire
broke out in the church as a result of an emergency rocket fired during
the Pentecost carnival. The roof burned out and there was significant
damage to the interior and walls. The church was rebuilt as it had
looked before the fire, and it was both a difficult and successful
reconstruction work. It was rededicated by Queen Margrethe on 14 January
1997.
The carriage yard was also part of the first Christiansborg, but in 1838 the king handed it over to furnish Thorvaldsen's Museum. The buildings had survived the fire in 1794, but were in poor condition. As a carriage yard, it had been divided into two parallel wings as C.F. Hansen closed with two end wings with drive-thru doors. The building was completely remodeled in connection with the conversion into a museum.