Location: Highway 6, 30 km North of island of Zealand Map
Tel. 33 40 31 87
Open: Jul: 1- 4:30pm daily
Gardens: 9am- 5pm daily
Fredensborg Palace is located on the island of
Zealand in Denmark. It serves as spring and autumn residence of the
Danish Royal Family on the shores of Lake Esrum. Fredensborg Palace
was constructed by architect Johan Cornelius Krieger upon orders of
Danish king Frederick IV. Krieger designed a magnificent Dutch
Baroque and Rococo palace. For many years he subsequently served as
a royal gardener.
The Great Northern War was coming to a
close and Danish monarch decided to celebrate the victory over the
Sweden and its Allies. The peace treaty was signed here on July 3rd,
1720 while the residence was still unfinished. Fredensborg
experienced many subsequent remodeling projects.
Fredensborg
Palace has a square shape with a central dome. Official royal
residence is surrounded by a beautiful garden with a network of
trails. It is the largest such garden in the country. Its layout was
designed by King Frederick IV himself. Over a course of next three
centuries it was expanded and increased in size. One of the most
interesting features of these gardens is a so- called Norwegian
Valley that contains over hundred sculptures of Norwegian and
Faroese farmers and fishermen. Additionally you can find a small
greenhouse next to a palace. Additionally there is a small royal
chapel. You can get here from a park from a secrete underground
passage from the inner chambers of the Fredensborg Palace.
Fredensborg Palace and surrounding gardens are usually resorted for
a Royal family and official state visits, but in July it is open to
the public.
The name Fredensborg appears as early
as 1719 in the county administrator's accounts. It has thus been
determined in advance that the castle should bear this name and be a
memorial to the happily concluded war. In the building accounts,
however, the name "Østrup" was still used, until the main building
was completed in 1722, and the king officially gave the castle its
new name.
The project
Rumor has it that it was Frederik IV
himself who designed the castle, but the royal house lists Johan
Cornelius Krieger as architect. The earliest project is also
designed by an amateur. The project shows a villa with too many
windows to be in true Italian style, and at the same time as the
villa character is emphasized by a triangular gable, a hump-like
dome is seen above the roof. In front of the main building, which
was on two floors or storeys but with a high basement, was projected
an octagonal courtyard with lower wing (relative to the main
building) to the courtyard as well as horses and carriages.
Architect Johan Cornelius Krieger corrected the project, removed the
triangular gable and gave the dome another erection. In the project,
the dome hall is the center of the entire building and also the
starting point for a number of radial roads in the associated park.
In front of the dome hall was a vestibule, towards the garden a
garden hall, to the sides the royal chambers.
Description
The castle was completed in 1724. The works were led by the builders
Johan Conrad Ernst and Johan Cornelius Krieger, but the main
building was built by Marcantonio Pelli. It was a square, no further
large building with only 80 feet of façade, built in Italian style:
the center of the building was formed by the dome hall, to which all
the other rooms adjoined. The octagonal courtyard was bounded by the
main building and 7, a storey of tall buildings, the so-called
wings, of which it just in front of the main building had the main
gate and a small spire with clock. Above the gate was carved (shown
by Didrick Gercken, who also made a bust of Frederik IV over the
front door of Fredensborg Castle Church):
When Kriig and
Orlogs-Tiid by God came to an end,
Was Fredensborg built by
Fjerde Friderich,
And that the Peace Paulun should be the Memory
of the War,
Then it got the name of Fred and Friderich to bear.
In the middle of the courtyard stood and still stands the Statue
of Peace or Unity, apparently an Italian work; on the other hand,
the fountain that surrounded it has now disappeared. In addition,
there was a so-called Domestikhus west of the octagon. Outside the
castle were two gardens, a larger one that lay like a semicircle
with avenues and passages in front of the castle, and a smaller one
that lay west of the castle, where now the Marble Garden is located.
The castle and its surroundings were equipped with a large
amount, partly from Frederiksborg and Amalienborg retrieved statues
and other sculptural works of stone and lead, which have now mostly
disappeared. The rooms were equipped with magnificent stucco work,
such as the ceiling in the current dome hall (then "Dining Room")
and garden hall (by the Italian Carlo Enrico Brenno). On October 11,
1726, the castle church built by Krieger was inaugurated, where the
altar (the altarpiece by Hendrik Krock), pulpit, royal chair and
baptismal font are by sculptor Friedrich Ehbisch.
The
interior of the castle
The interior of the castle has many
sights. The dome hall (Fredssalen), which runs through the entire
building and gets its light from the dome, is as mentioned adorned
with paintings by Mandelberg, Abildgaard and Ryde. The stucco work
is as mentioned by Brenno; the 4 magnificent marble portals at the
doors are, according to a dubious legend, gifts to King Frederik IV
from Grand Duke Gian Gastone de Medici (Johan Gasto of Tuscany);
moreover, the Garden Hall, whose ceiling paintings by Krock and
stucco works by Brenno are also mentioned; also in other rooms there
are ceiling paintings by Krock.
The formerly very valuable
painting collection has now been considerably reduced, as much of
the best has been moved to the Royal Painting Collection. In
addition to the Garden Hall, pictures are given here of the Russian
pavilion found in the castle garden and of Emperor Alexander III's
villa, which is located outside the garden to the right of the
driveway to the castle. The first was originally at the exhibition
in Copenhagen in 1888, but was set up in the garden in 1889, after a
Russian private man had donated it to the state. The villa was
bought by the emperor in 1885.
History
The gazebo
In the place where the
castle inn is now located, there was a barn in the 17th century,
Østrup, which together with another nearby farm, Ebbekjøb, was owned
by Queen Sophie Amalie, who often lived there in the summer.
However, Ebbekøb had already been demolished before the middle of
the 18th century (only Ebbekøb Vang near Frederiksborg is still
reminiscent of it). In the 1660s Østrup was owned "free and clear",
by the queen's valet, later Baron Jacob de Petersen, who in 1670
sold the farm to Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, who again sold it in
1678 to Christian V. Both he and his son Frederik IV visited often
the place because of its beauty, and the latter had some
construction work done on Østrup (a new "gazebo") shortly after his
accession to the throne. But it all soon became too cramped for him,
and when the costly Great Nordic War drew to a close, he realized he
had his long-awaited plan to build a pleasure castle there, as on 20
April 1719 he ordered the demolition of "Sparepenge" near
Frederiksborg and let the stones lead to Østrup. The same year the
foundation was laid, and in 1720 the construction of the main
building was started. has been completed at the beginning of 1722.
Until then, the building had been called "Østrup Castle", only on
the king's birthday, 11 October 1722, was it named Fredensborg.
Frederik IV spent the last years of his life for a large part at
Fredensborg, at least he was there "like all summer and well into
the winter some years", but under Christian VI it was different.
Then the castle was mostly abandoned, partly because the new royal
couple had unpleasant memories of the little-loved Queen Anna
Sophie, partly because Queen Sophie Magdalene even got disgusted
with the castle after her mother, Christine Sophie, Countess of
Kulmbach, was died here August 23, 1737; before this death, however,
the court had occasionally been at Fredensborg, after that time it
hardly happened anymore. However, it was inhabited from 1740 by the
queen's sister, the widowed princess Sophie Caroline of Ostfriesland
(who died in 1764 at Sorgenfri Castle).
Frederik V
On the other hand, Frederik V made Fredensborg, so
to speak, his permanent summer residence and kept an excellent court
there, which necessitated major construction work. In the time of
Christian VI, only a few changes had been made; some additions had
been made, but the most important thing was that from 1741 the main
building had begun to be elevated under Thurah's leadership. After
these works were completed in 1749, a major repair of the castle was
undertaken, the garden hall was decorated by Hänel and Fabris, new
extensions were built, and finally, when the space was still too
small, it was built from 1753 under the leadership of Thurah and
Eigtved the 4 pavilions on the corners of the main building, as well
as the 4 corner spiers by the dome were erected. How extensive these
works have been can be seen from the fact that in 1750-57 approx.
138,470 rigsdaler of the king's coffers. Likewise, the castle garden
was redecorated, and new sculptural works were completed (thus the 4
"senses", including the "sense of smell" of Hänel, which still
stands in the marble garden). the French architect Jardins, the
builder of the Marble Church, plan the castle park and the garden in
the shape they now have, only that they are now partly in English
style.The marble garden and Nordmandsdalen were laid out.The park
and garden amounted to about 150 tdr. ld. is from these years
(1760-69) that most of the garden's great sculptural works,
especially by John Wiedewelt, originate, he has thus executed the
two large vases and the 4 seasons that stand near the castle, the
two colossal statues of Denmark and Norway (his finest works at
Fredensborg), found in front of the castle on two large pedestals,
the groups Perseus and Andromeda, Aeneas and Anchises, and Paris and
Helena; on "Skibsbakken" a ship's pillar or "Columna Rostrata" with
the inscription "Fortiss ima concilia tutissima Anno 1762
"(presumably referring to the political position of Russia. The
column from 1762 was replaced in 1784 by a new one). The monument of
stone and marble, adorned with a stone and a marble head and
provided with a runic inscription that tells that Frederik IV raised
these stones and Frederik V had the runes carved (The monument is
engraved in copper after a painting by Jens Juel, with signature:
"Forblommet Antique in Fredensborg Hauge after King Frederik V's by
Wiedewelt performed Tanke.").
A significant but not very
valuable decoration was given to the garden in 1765 by the erection
of the 55 sandstone figures in Nordmandsdalen, representing
Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic farmers by J.G. Reason (he himself
has described them and had them engraved in copper 1773); better is
his two years after erecting the "Colonne triumphale" in the middle
of the circle. Mandelberg's paintings in the Dome Hall also date
from this period, just as in general the collection of paintings at
the castle increased significantly under Frederik V.
It was
also at this time that the small town grew up around the castle;
already in 1764 it had "Reputation of a Spot or little Kiøbstad".
Juliane Marie
After this king's death, Fredensborg became the
widow's seat in the summer and well into the autumn for the widow
queen Juliane Marie. During her time, the wing in the middle of the
castle was demolished, while the other "wings" were raised with a
canopy, and the two end pavilions were built. During Juliane Marie's
first widow life, life at Fredensborg has been quieter, neither
Christian VII nor Caroline Mathilde would visit after 1772, when she
gained great influence after the fall of Struense, the great days
returned: the court was frequently held here, and the little crown
prince (later Frederik VI) was brought up here; the small stone
cave, which he himself must have built (on a stone nearby is the
year 1779, perhaps the year of the cave's creation.) After
Guldberg's fall in 1784, the widow queen herself had to entertain
her court at Fredensborg, where she died on October 10, 1796.
Christian VIII
After that, Fredensborg's heyday was over. The
castle was now empty for some years. When Prince Christian
(Christian VIII) returned home from his short kingdom in Norway in
1814, Frederik VI ruled. Fredensborg to his residence; but it was
changed shortly afterwards, when Prince Christian of Hesse died at
Odense Castle, which the heir to the throne then received together
with the government over the Diocese of Funen; his sister, Juliane
Sophie, on the other hand, spent some time at Fredensborg in the
summer.
The empty castle
Later Fredensborg stood
abandoned and dilapidated; a time was used for the house arcades and
cadet school or for free housing for dismissed officials; yes it was
even rented out to private people. The people of the town were
allowed to hold a ball in the halls, in 1855 parliamentary elections
were held in the Dome Hall. The park, which was also dilapidated,
however, found as early as 1833 a knowledgeable and talented garden
artist in R. Rothe; he transformed it partly into English style, but
retained some of the old, especially the large, straight alleys
(Kæmpealleen, or Bredealleen, Dybealléen or Sukkenes Allé, etc.), he
opened viewpoints over the lake, etc .; and finally a better time
also dawned for the castle, when Frederiksborg castle burned down in
1859. It was again destined for summer residence for the king, the
barracks had to prefer, and on December 14, 1861, Frederik VII moved
in; but it was only short visits he made in the following years (in
the summer of 1862 he received the Norwegian and Swedish students
there and shortly after King Charles XV), as he did not really favor
the place.
Frederik VII
Under the new royal house, on the
other hand, came Fredensborg's right to honor and dignity, it has
during this reached a fame like never before. Immediately on the
first summer of 1864, the royal family lived here, and since then it
has regularly been its residence in the summer and well into the
fall and a gathering place for the royal couple's children and
relatives. The beautiful, heartfelt family life has obscured the
memory of the glorious celebrations of the time of Frederick V, and
the frequent visits made by the Prince and Princess of Wales, the
King and Queen of Greece, etc., and in particular Emperor Alexander
III of Russia and the Empress, all of Europe's attention to the
castle. For the royal family, of course, Fredensborg is rich in
anniversaries, so June 23, 1866 declaration of Princess Dagmar's
engagement to the Russian Grand Duke (Alexander III), May 27, 1870
Princess Thyra's confirmation in the castle church, Princess Thyras
and the Duke of Cumberland's stay at the castle after their wedding
in Copenhagen 21 December 1878, the torchlight procession 22 October
1885 on the occasion of Prince Valdemar's and Princess Marie's
wedding in France on the same day, and the bride and groom's
reception of the city on 8 December the same year, the festivities
on 7 September 1887 on the occasion of the Queen's 70th birthday
birthday, Prince Vilhelm of Glücksborg's funeral in the castle
church on 13 September 1893, the day before the body's transfer to
Roskilde etc.