Frederiksborg Castle

Why it is renowned

Frederiksborg was built for Christian IV as the largest Renaissance residence in Scandinavia.¹² All Danish monarchs but one were crowned or anointed in its chapel from 1671 to 1840, and the Treaty of Frederiksborg that ended the Great Northern War between Sweden and Denmark-Norway was signed there in 1720.¹ It holds the Museum of National History, with the largest collection of portrait paintings in Denmark.¹² The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York holds views of the castle by Johan Christian Dahl, drawn in 1817, and Jørgen Roed, etched in 1836.³⁴

The story

Frederick II acquired the estate by exchange in 1550, had the old house extended from 1560 and named it Frederiksborg.¹ His son Christian IV had the old building pulled down in 1599; Hans van Steenwinckel the Elder and then his sons Hans and Lorenz built the new palace in the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance style, finished around 1620.¹ A fire in 1859 ruined most of it; the Chapel and the Audience Chamber survived.² It was rebuilt from old plans with public money and the support of the brewer J. C. Jacobsen of Carlsberg, who founded the Museum of National History there in 1878; it opened to the public in 1882.¹² The Baroque garden beside the lake was laid out from 1720 and recreated in the 1990s.⁵

What to know it by

• The Chapel¹1618Coronation church of the absolute kings, spared by the fire
• The Great Hall¹Restored after the fire of 1859
• The Audience Chamber¹Spared by the fire of 1859
• Compenius organ⁷Historic chamber organ, heard in short concerts