Frederiksborg Castle is located on three small islets in Hillerod, about 19 miles north of Copenhagen. Designed in the Flemish and Dutch Renaissance style, the three-winged castle is constructed out of red bricks with light sandstone details, and features towering spires and sweeping gables. The towers, moat, and lake give the four-story building a fairy-tale appearance. (LMSpencer/Shutterstock)
Set on three islands surrounded by a fairytale-like lake and beautiful gardens in Denmark, Frederiksborg Castle is one of the most magnificent castles in the world and the largest Renaissance complex in Scandinavia. Once the residence of Danish royalty, Frederiksborg Castle is now home to the Danish National History Museum.
Originally, Frederiksborg was a hunting lodge, acquired in 1560 by King Frederik II in Hillerod, north of Copenhagen. Between 1600 and 1620, Frederik’s son, Christian IV, transformed the property into an elegant Renaissance royal palace, which became a royal residence until the next century. Christian IV commissioned sumptuous decorative elements such as the Neptune Fountain and the Marble Gallery to display his status as a powerful and wealthy European monarch.
As the castle was being built, Christian IV resided in an Italian-style pleasure palace across the lake, known as “Sparepenge” (“Savings”), which was replaced by a symmetrical Baroque garden in 1720. The English-style garden is also noteworthy for its design, which is meant to convey the beauty of nature with its bucolic lakes and shrubbery.
In the mid-19th century, King Frederik VII moved in; he renovated and installed fireplaces and stoves, which caused a major fire in 1859 that burned large parts of the interior. Miraculously, the chapel and the Audience Chamber survived the fire.
In 1878, the founder of Carlsberg beer, J.C. Jacobsen, reconstructed the castle and transformed it into a museum, which today features artifacts from over 500 years of Danish history, including portraits, paintings, sculptures, furniture, and decorative art.
Designed by Adriaen de Vries in 1623, the Neptune Fountain is located in the castle’s courtyard, in front of the red brick buildings. The large bronze Neptune sculpture symbolizes King Christian IV. This particular fountain, surrounded by tritons piping seashells in the outer basin, is an 1888 copy of the original by Heinrich Hansen. (Zigmunds Dizgalvis/Shutterstock)
In 1720, landscape architect Johan Cornelius Krieger created this large Baroque-style symmetrical garden following the main axis of the castle, consisting of three main terraces, with straight lines and sharp angles to showcase the beauty in mankind’s control of nature. The garden features symmetrical box hedges, trimmed trees, sculptures, and flower beds. The lowest plateau features royal monograms of Frederik IV, Frederik V, Christian VI, and Margrethe II, designed in trimmed box hedges. (Jethro T/Shutterstock)
While the 1859 fire destroyed most of the castle, the two-story chapel didn’t suffer any damage and remains the best-preserved part of the Renaissance complex. The nave and Gothic stellar vaulting are supported by the gilded sandstone columns rising from the galleries. At the southern end of the chapel is the historic Compenius organ, built in 1610 by Esaias Compenius, and decorated with ebony, ivory, and silver. The oldest organ in Denmark, it has 1,001 wooden pipes, and is still used for concerts to this day. (Andrey Shcherbukhin /Shutterstock)
The Rose Room was formerly used as a dining room for the king and his courtiers; it was destroyed by the 1859 fire and reconstructed from old paintings. Located on the ground floor in the King’s Wing, the decorative carved stucco vaults are supported by free-standing pillars. (Andrey Shcherbukhin /Shutterstock)
This royal Baroque bedroom features a carved and upholstered royal-green canopy bed, which dates from around 1724 and was made for Christian V and his wife, Charlotte Amalie. Costly tapestries cover the walls and depict Alexander the Great entering Babylon and the battle against King Dariusof Persia. The tapestries were made at the famous Les Gobelins factory in Paris. (Andrey Shcherbukhin /Shutterstock)
The Great Hall, or Knights Hall, is located on the second floor above the castle chapel, and its marble flooring extends over the length of the west wing. Severely damaged by the 1859 fire, the Great Hall underwent reconstruction following the architectural paintings by Heinrich Hansen and F.C. Lund. Ferdinand Meldahl carried out the restoration work, using segments of the ornate gilded ceiling to reconstruct the ceiling. The walls are covered with portraits of the kings and queens of the Glucksborg line, as well as rich tapestries following the design of Karel van Mander’s original works. (Diego Grandi/Shutterstock)
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