Denmark-Frederiksborg Castle

Nestled between majestic beech forests, at the northern end of the s-train line from Copenhagen, Hillerød is the main regional centre and transport hub of North Zealand.  For visitors, this small city of some 30.000 inhabitants is above all known for its large impressive renaissance castle.

Frederiksborg Palace or Frederiksborg Castle  is a palace in Hillerod, Denmark. It was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV and is now a museum of national history.
Frederik II's son, Christian IV was born at Frederiksborg Castle in 1577 and was deeply attached to it. In 1599 he instigated extensive restoration work in the course of which the old main buildings were pulled down and replaced by a magnificent new Renaissance Castle. The Castellan's House and the Chancellery were built on the outer courtyard during the years around 1613. Throughout the seventeenth century, Frederiksborg Castle was often used as a royal residence, but during the succeeding centuries the royal family seldom used it. However, the Castle was of great ceremonial importance. With the introduction of absolutism, Danish kings were no longer crowned but instead anointed in the Chapel at Frederiksborg Castle.

                                             The Chapel at the castle

The Museum of National History
In the 1850s Frederik VII often used Frederiksborg Castle as a royal residence. The old castle had not been properly maintained, and fire broke out during the night of 16/17 December 1859. It started in one of the newly installed fireplaces in the third floor and spread rapidly. The greater part of the interior of the Castle was destroyed. The Privy Passage and the Audience House escaped the flames. Several of thebig ceiling vaults in the Chapel collapsed, but the rest of the building was saved. The fire was a disaster. Frederiksborg Castle was regarded at the time as a national monument, and during the days that followed a spontaneous, nation-wide collection was initiated with the aim of financing the restoration of the Castle. The founder of the Carlsberg Breweries, J. C. Jacobsen, was among the first contributors and proved to be of great importance to the castle's future use. In 1877 he proposed that a museum of national history be established at Frederiksborg Castle along the lines of those at Versailles in France and Gripsholm in Sweden. His aim was to stimulate the self-confidence and national loyalty of the Danes during the period after the loss of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein in 1864. On 5 April 1878 Christian IX issued a royal decree whereby the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle became and independent department of the Carlsberg Foundation.

Collection
The Museum of National History shows portraits, history paintings, art manufacture and graphic prints.
Their collection of portraits is the largest in Denmark and consists of portrait paintings, busts, reliefs and portrait photography. Several renowned works are found among our history paintings, which depict scenes from Danish history. The museum has a collection of art manufacture ranging from the 1500's until the present. In addition there is a large collection of graphic prints consisting of both primitive popular prints and exquisite copperplates.

Danish history through 500 years
Several rooms at The Museum of National History give a vivid impression of past interiors. Danish history is told through portraits, history paintings, furniture and art manufacture. Thus the museum shows different epochs and changes in style. Touring the museum you encounter people and events that have helped shape Danish history from the Middle Ages until the 21st century.

The Castle gardens
The Mint Gate and the Mint Bridge lead from the Castle to the Baroque Garden. Christian IV had built a little Italian villa which he called "Sparepenge" (Savings) opposite the King's Wing, but it was pulled down at the beginning of the 1720s to make room for Frederik IV's Baroque Garden. The architect J. C. Krieger laid out the symmetrical garden, which follows the Castle's main axis with a long perspective extending into the landscape. The garden was altered during the following centuries, but in the 1990s it was restored, complete with cascades and parterre flower-beds. The Baroque garden is however, not the only garden in the grounds. To the left of the Baroque Garden is a romantic English-inspired garden, which is also home to the charming Bath House.

                                   Hillerød, Denmark: Stunning Frederiksborg Castle

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Copenhagen -Christiansborg Palace

Christiansborg Palace has a more than 800 year-long history as the state’s centre of power, and today the palace includes several institutions of central importance. The Folketing has at its disposal most of the rooms in the palace, but the Prime Minister, the High Court, and the Royal Reception Rooms are also located here.

The existing Christiansborg Palace is the last in a long row of buildings that have been on Slotsholmen in Copenhagen. Christian VI had the medieval Copenhagen Castle demolished immediately after his accession to the throne, and between 1735 and 1745, he built the first Christiansborg Palace, which, however, burned in 1794. The second Christiansborg Palace was completed in 1828 during the reign of Frederik VI, but it also burned in 1884. The third Christiansborg Palace was built between 1907 and 1928. Frederik VIII laid the cornerstone, and Christian X inaugurated the palace.

The Royal Reception Rooms at Christiansborg Palace are located on the first floor, the so-called bel étage, in the northern part of the main wing and in the wing along Prins Jorgen’s Gaard. The rooms are used by HM The Queen for the New Year Levee, evening parties, gala banquets and ambassadorial audiences. The Royal Reception Rooms were inaugurated with a grand party on 12 January 1928, and that date is considered as the official inauguration of the palace.

The Royal Reception Rooms are richly decorated, both with artworks salvaged from the two previous palaces and with decorations made by some of the best artists of that day, as well as with a fine contemporary addition in the form of Bjorn Norgaard’s tapestries made for HM The Queen.

Visitors come to the Royal Reception Rooms along the King's Staircase, at the end of which, to the right, they reach the Tower Room. Here one sees a series of tapestries with motifs from Danish folk ballads, designed by Joakim Skovgaard. Across from this lies the oval Throne Room with the two thrones.


The Throne Room is decorated with a large ceiling painting by Kræsten Iversen depicting Dannebrog, which according to legend fell from the sky in Estonia in 1219. Christian IX’s Apartment contains six marble busts of, respectively, Christian IX and Queen Louise, Frederik VIII and Queen Lovisa, and Christian X and Queen Alexandrine. 

The Fredensborg Room is dominated by Laurits Tuxen’s large painting of Christian IX and Queen Louise surrounded by their family in the Garden Room at Fredensborg Palace. In Frederik VI’s Apartment hang four large Eckersberg paintings salvaged from the second Christiansborg Palace. The Velvet Apartment was used as the throne room until 1933, hence the high ceiling and the fine marble portals. In the Corner Apartment hang Laurits Tuxen’s large painting of “The Four Generations”, showing Christian IX and the princes Frederik VIII),                                                                                     Christian (X) and Frederik (IX).

The Great Hall is the largest of the Reception Rooms, and it is 40 metres long and 10 metres high with a gallery running along its sides. Retracted into the ceiling are three large Kræsten Iversen paintings that symbolise the legislative, the executive and the judiciary powers united in the palace. The Hall was originally decorated with Christian V’s tapestries from Rosenborg Castle, but these tapestries were returned to Rosenborg when the Danish business community’s gift for Queen Margrethe’s 50th birthday in 1990, the Danish sculptor Bjorn Norgaard’s 17 tapestries with motifs selected from 1000 years of Danish history, were mounted in the Hall in connection with the Queen’s 60th birthday on 16 April 2000.

The Royal Banquet Hall has three retracted mural paintings depicting Christian VI, Frederik VI and Christian VIII. The Abildgaard Room takes its name from the three large paintings from Nicolai Abildgaard’s series of royal paintings salvaged from the first Christiansborg: Christian I, Christian III and Frederik II. The Alexander Room is decorated with Bertel Thorvaldsen’s marble frieze, “The Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon”, which was originally made for the second Christiansborg Palace.

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Nyhavn - A historical waterfront

Nyhavn (literally: New Harbour) is a 17th-century waterfront, canal and entertainment district in Copenhagen, Denmark. Stretching from Kongens Nytorv

 to the harbour front just south of the Royal Playhouse, it is lined by brightly coloured 17th and early 18th century townhouses and bars, cafes and restaurants. Serving as a "heritage harbour", the canal has many historical wooden ships.

Nyhavn was constructed by King Christian V from 1670 to 1673, dug by Swedish war prisoners from the  Dano-Swedish war 1650-1658. It is a gateway from the sea to the old inner city at Kongens Nytorv (King's Square), where ships handled cargo and fishermens' catch. It was notorious for beer, sailors, and prostitution. Danish author Hans Christian  Andersen lived at Nyhavn for some 18 years.

The first bridge across Nyhavn opened on 6 February 1875. It was a temporary wooden footbridge. It was replaced by the current bridge in 1912.  As ocean-going ships grew larger, Nyhavn was taken over by internal Danish small vessel freight traffic. After World War II land transport took over this role and small vessel traffic disappeared from the Port of Copenhagen, leaving Nyhavn largely deserted of ships.

In the mid-1960s, the Nyhavn Society (Danish: Nyhavnsforeningen) was founded with the aim of revitalising Nyhavn. In 1977, Nyhavn was inaugurated as a veteran ship and museum harbour by Overborgmester i København (Copenhagen’s Lord Mayor)  Egon Weidikamp.

The great Memorial Anchor at the end of Nyhavn, where it meets Kongens Nytorv, is a monument commemorating the more than 1,700 Danish officers and sailors in service for the Navy, merchant fleet or Allied forces, who sacrificed their lives during World War II. The Anchor was inaugurated in 1951, replacing a temporary wooden cross erected on the spot in 1845, and has a plaque with a monogram of King Fredrik VII on it. The Memorial Anchor is from 1872 and was used on the Frigate Fyn (Funen), which was docked at Holmen Naval Base during the Second World War. Every year on May 5th – Denmark’s Liberation day 1945 – an official ceremony is held to honour and commemorate the fallen at the Memorial Anchor.

Nyhavn’s past is almost as colourful as the façades on the quay. It’s a history full of ships, sailors – and lots of alcohol. Drinking beer is still the number one pastime here: On a sunny day, all of Copenhagen seems to converge on the quays of Nyhavn for a glass of Carlsberg. But, however delicious, there is much more to this area than chilled lager.

No. 9, Nyhavn, is the oldest house in the area dating back to 1681. The design of the house has not been altered since that time.  Many of the houses in Nyhavn were once inhabited by prominent artists and writers. This includes world-famous fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen, who lived in no fewer than three houses here at different times. Many of his stories were written in Nyhavn. Andersen initially lived at number 20, where he came up with the tale of the Princess on the Pea, among others. He later moved to number 67, which he swapped after twenty years for number 18, where he spent two more years.

Red house is #20 where  H.C.Andersen lived

Amalienborg Palaces And The Marble Church

A stone's throw away from the Admiral hotel is the Amalienborg palaces situated at the periphery of a large cobbled octagonal courtyard with the majestic statue of King Fredrik V on horse back in the centre,who is the founder of Amalienborg. At the farthest end is the green domed marble church, or Fredrik's church.

Amalienborg is the winter home of the Danish Royal family. It consists of four identical classicizing palace façades. Amalienborg was originally built for four noble families. The Royal Family found itself homeless after the Christiansborg palace fire of 1794. The noblemen who owned them were willing to part with their mansions for promotion and money, and the Moltke and Schack Palaces were acquired in the course of a few days. Since that date successive royal family members have lived at Amalienborg. The four palaces are:
Christian VII's Palace, originally known as Moltke's Palace
Christian VIII's Palace, originally known as Levetzau's Palace
Frederick VIII's Palace, originally known as Brockdorff's Palace
Christian IX's Palace, originally known as Schack's Palace

Currently, only the palaces of Christian VII and Christian VIII are open to the public.

Amalienborg is guarded day and night by Royal life guards. Their full dress uniform is fairly similar to that of the Foot guards regiments of the British Army: a scarlet tunic; blue trousers; and a navy bearskin cap. The guard march from Rosenborg castle at 11.30 am daily through the streets of Copenhagen, and execute the changing the guard in front of Amalienborg at noon. In addition, post replacement is conducted every two hours.

When the Queen is in residence the The King's Guard also march alongside the changing the guard at noon, accompanied by a band that plays traditional military marches. The Guard Lieutenant is always alerted when Prince Henrik or another member of the royal family are reigning in absence of the Queen.

The equestrian statue was commissioned by Moltke, as Director for the Danish Asiatic Company, and it was made by French sculptor Jacques Francois-Joseph  Saly. Work began in 1753, and the foundation stone was laid in place in 1760 at the 100 year celebration of political absolutism in Denmark. The statue was finally unveiled in 1771, five years after King Frederik V's death in 1766.

Frederik's Church, popularly known as The Marble Church for its architecture, is an Evangelical Lutheran church. It is located just west of Amalienborg Palance. The church was designed by the architect Nicolai Eigtved in 1740. Frederick's Church has the largest church dome in Scandinavia with a span of 31m, though there are three larger domes elsewhere in Europe. The dome rests on 12 columns. The inspiration was probably St. Peter's Basilca in Rome.

The foundation stone was set by king Fredrik V on October 31, 1749, but the construction was slowed by budget cuts and the death of Eigtved in 1754. In 1770, the original plans for the church were abandoned by Johann Friedrich Struensee. The church was left incomplete and, in spite of several initiatives to complete it, stood as a ruin for nearly 150 years.

In 1874, Andreas Fredrick Krieger, Denmark's Finance Minister at the time, sold the ruins of the uncompleted church and the church square to Carl Fredrick Tietgen for 100,000 Rigsdaler — none of which was to be paid in cash — on the condition that Tietgen would build a church in a style similar to the original plans and donate it to the state when complete, while in turn he acquired the rights to subdivide neighboring plots for development.

The deal was at the time highly controversial. On 25 January 1877, a case was brought by the Folketing at the Court Of Impeachment , Krieger being charged with corruption over this deal. He was, however, eventually acquitted.

Tietgen got Ferdinand  Meldahl to design the church in its final form and financed its construction. Due to financial restrictions, the original plans for the church to be built almost entirely from marble were discarded, and instead Meldahl opted for construction to be done with limestone. The church was finally opened to the public on August 19, 1894.

Inscribed in gold lettering on the entablature of the front portico are the words: HERRENS ORD BLIVER EVINDELIG (Danish: "the word of the Lord endureth for ever." – 1 Peter1:25, KJV).

A series of statues of prominent theologians and ecclesiastical figures, including one of the eminent Danish philosopher Kierkgard (who, incidentally, had become very critical of the established church by the end of his life), encircles the grounds of the building.

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Copenhagen - Langelinie Water Front

Just after check in, I thought that I would explore my surroundings. I discovered that the back entrance was leading right onto the water front. And what a grand sight it was. There were two schooners docked right there. The water in the harbour was clean with no oil slicks or junk floating around. The opera house on the opposite side looked grand. I just walked along the broad wharf admiring the boats. I was greeted by friendly joggers or cyclists.

Suddenly, I came upon a small park with fountains, interesting vegetation and sculptures. This park is known as Amaliehaven, a small park located between Amalienborg palace and the waterfront. A relatively new park, it was established in 1983 as a gift from the A.P.Moller  and the Chastine McKinney Møller Foundation. Amaliehaven is a rectangular park built to a stringent, symmetrical design centred on a large fountain to respect and accentuate the Fredriksgade axis which unifies the entire area. On both sides of the central fountain, the gardens continue on two levels, with shrubs and walls enclosing it from the waterfront on one side and the street on the other. The garden abounds with different varieties of plants and fragrant flowers whose colours and natural shapes creates a contrast to the geometrical layout of the park. Japanese cherry tress, blooming in April, plays a particularly distinctive role among the parks vegetation. The Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro has created various sculptures for the park, including four large abstract columns and two sun-like water features which from each their end of the park sprinkle it with their jets of water.

As I walked along I could appreciate the Fredricksgade axis, with the Fredrick (marble) church and the Amalienborg palaces at one end and culminating in the newly built opera house across the waters. It was all so symmetrical.

The Gefion Fountain is a large fountain on the harbour front ,in a corner of Churchillparken. It is one of the largest monuments in Copenhagen. The sculptures were created by Anders Bundgaard (1864-1937) - featuring a large group of naturalistic strong oxen’s pulling the plough of legendary Norse goddess Gefion. Gefion Fountain was donated by the Carlsberg Foundation as a gift to the city on the occasion of the Carlsberg brewery’s 50 year anniversary in 1897. The entire fountain with the basins and sculptors were completed and revealed in 1908 to the public. 

According to an ancient legend, Gefion was the goddess who ploughed the island of Zealand out of Sweden. The Swedish king Gylfe offered the goddess Gefion as much land as she was capable of ploughing within one day and one night. She transformed her four sons into immensely powerful oxen and had them plough so deeply in the ground that they raised the land and pulled it into the sea. This is how the island of Zealand was created. The lake Vännern in Sweden approximately resembles the shape of Zealand, proving that there must be some truth in the story. The fountain underwent extensive renovations starting in 1999. The fountain was out of commission for many years, and was re-inaugurated in September 2004.

Next to the Gefion fountain is St. Alban's Church, locally often referred to simply as the English Church, an Anglican church in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built from 1885 to 1887 for the growing English congregation in the city. St. Alban's Church is designed as a traditional English church by Arthur Blomfield who also designed a number of parish churches around Britain and received the  Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal in 1891.

The Little Mermaid (Danish: Den lille havfrue) is a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen, depicting a mermaid. The sculpture is displayed on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark.[a] It has a height of 1.25 metres (4.1 ft)[2] and weighs 175 kilograms (385 lb).[3]
Based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and has been a major tourist attraction since 1913. In recent decades it has become a popular target for defacement by vandals and political activists. The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale in Copenhagen's Royal Theatre and asked the ballerina, Ellen Price, to model for the statue. The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the bronze statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. The statue's head was modelled after Price, but as the ballerina did not agree to model in the nude, the sculptor's wife, Eline Eriksen, was used for the body.  

The Copenhagen City Council decided to move the statue to Shanghai at the Danish Pavilion for the duration of the Expo 2010 (May to October), the first time it had been moved from its perch since it was installed almost a century earlier.

This statue has been damaged and defaced  many times since the mid-1960s for various reasons, but has each time been restored. In 2006, Copenhagen officials announced that the statue may be moved farther out in the harbour, so as to avoid further vandalism and to prevent tourists from climbing onto it.
On April 24, 1964, the statue's head was sawn off and stolen by politically oriented artists of the situationist movement. The head was never recovered and a new head was produced and placed on the statue. On July 22, 1984, the right arm was sawn off and returned two days later by two young men.In 1990, an attempt to sever the statue's head left a cut in the neck 18 centimeters (7 in) deep.
On January 6, 1998, the statue was decapitated again; the culprits were never found, but the head was returned anonymously to a nearby TV station, and re-attached on February 4. On the night of September 10, 2003, the statue was knocked off its base with explosives and later found in the harbor's waters. Holes were blasted in the mermaid's wrist and knee.
In 2004, she was draped in a burqa as a statement against Turkey joining the European Union. In May 2007, she was again found draped in a Muslim dress and head scarf.
Paint has been poured on the statue several times, including one episode in 1963 and two in March and May 2007. On March 8, 2006, a dildo was attached to the statue's hand, green paint was dumped over it, and the words March 8 were written on it. It is suspected that this vandalism was connected with International Women's day, which is on March 8


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The Admiral Hotel at Copenhagen, Denmark

I have always had a fascination for Scandinavia and always dreamt of visiting those countries, and unexpectedly, the chance popped out of the blue. I was included in a delegation to visit copenhagen in a professional capacity in the first week of September.

We landed in Copenhagen at mid afternoon and the weather was bright and sunny. We transferred to Admiral Hotel on the waterfront. At first sight the exterior didnt look like any other hotel. It was made up of drab bricks with tiny windows. The lobby held a very large model of a viking ship encased in glass. The reception area was narrow with wooden pillars and exposed beams along its entire length. We were then told that this very building was 200 hundred years old and it was a granary which was converted into a star hotel. The building has been awarded the Europe Nostra award for its contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage. This was one of the first indications of the importance given to the preservation of past culture in the entire city. Later as we moved around the city, I found that most of the buildings were from the 18th century. There was not a single skyscraper. There wasn't a single building beyond three floors. I found hundreds of cyclists at any given point of time. Young or old everybody were cycling. I felt that I had gone back in time. The only indication that we were in the 21st century was when I spotted some sleek BMW's and Mercedes Benz cabs. I didnt encounter a single traffic jam. I just fell in love with Copenhagen. People too were happy and laid back. Nobody seemed to be stressed out. Apart from the cyclists everybody seemed to be exercising- jogging or cycling. I didnt encounter a single obese person during my entire stay in Denmark. Amazing.

In the 18th century the Admiral hotel happened to be a warehouse, storing thousands of barrels of grain. The warehouse was originally built as a granary for the trading company Pingel, Meyer, Prætorius & Co.in 1787 and, thanks to its architectural beauty, the building bears witness to the wealth generated by late 18th century trade. The warehouse started life at the time when all shipping was under sail. In those days, the harbour was a hive of bustling activity and the warehouse was a focal point for the shipping trade, not only to other parts of Denmark but to the danish colonies and the rest of the world. On April 2nd 1801, the Danish and English fleets fought the renowned war "Battle of Copenhagen" right outside the warehouse windows. Anyone who had sought shelter behind the massive warehouse walls might have witnessed the admiral putting his telescope to his blind eye in order to avoid acknowledging his commander's permission to withdraw. On September 3rd 1807, the wings of history passed over the warehouse once again. During the second Battle of Copenhagen, a huge English fleet besieged Copenhagen and bombarded the city. While cannon fire flew over the warehouse, the streets filled with the homeless, the wounded and the dying. What is now the hotel's lounge and where the old grain drying oven once stood, was then used to provide shelter for the many wounded. In the days when the warehouse was a granary, up to 30.000 barrels of grain could be stored and a grain drying oven was commissioned by and installed for the monarch. The warehouse was originally two separate buildings, which were connected by a mid-section at the end of the 19th century. The building was acquired by private investors in 1973 for redevelopment as a hotel. The architects Flemming Hertz and Ole Ramsgaard Thomsen undertook the conversion which was rewarded with an Nostra diploma from the Eu. The hotel opened its foors in January 1978. It was refurbished in 2004