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.
View more pictures of Amalienborg palace complex at
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