Frederiksborg Slot

Frederiksborg Slot was, hands down, our favorite place to see in Denmark. It is a castle that floats! 

It is built on three islands and surrounded by a baroque garden and waterfall. It was originally built in the1560s by Frederik II and expanded by Christian IV between 1600-1620.  The Danish monarchs used it for two centuries, though now it is the Museum of National History.  

In 1859 the castle burned and through subscription it was rebuilt. The beer master Carl Jacobsen help fund the restoration in the 1880 and helped open the museum in 1882.  It is currently undergoing another round of restoration-- the bridge to the courtyard is under a tent.

courtyard with Neptune at the top of the fountain

Roman gods welcome you to the castle

Neptune being the most important since the castle is built on water

 The museum now contains Denmark's most important collection of portraits and historical paintings, as well as amazing examples of furniture, silver, glassware, clocks, etc of Danish history.  The top floors are dedicated to Danish history, focusing on the kings who built and lived in the castle.  The lower floors explore the more modern aspects of Danish history, including the writing desk of Hans Christian Andersen. 

the moat of the castle

inner courtyard

inner courtyard and the main entrance to the museum

 I went through the museum without Will-- he was working-- but we went back to explore the gardens.  The way that the boxwood bushes were perfectly trimmed and designed to read the initials of Christian IV or Frederik VII was amazing.  The trees were all so uniform in shape and size-- the team of gardeners for the castle certainly has fun.

self-portrait

Frederik IV, Christian VI, and Frederik V used these gardens all the time.  But the tightwad Christian VII (1766-1808) had no interest in maintaining the promenades or groves of trees. It was too expensive, apparently. By the 1930s, the gardens were in a very bad state and funding was finally made available to return the garden to its former glory.

the intricate gardens

amazing angled and sloped walls of grass with perfectly formed trees are everywhere

 The interior spaces of the castle are so overwhelming.  Every inch is covered in something to look at--more like gawk at-- and the audio guide (a free iPod) is completely worth your time. Room by room, it explains what you are looking at and why it is important to Danish history.

Christian IV and his queen

a gorgeous Danish silver fireplace cover

one of the hallways

One of the most spectacular rooms was the Great Hall, with its small balcony for musical entertainment.  The ceiling depicted scenes from Danish history, made easier to study with the mirrors reflecting up. Along the walls were full-length portraits of the Kings and Queens of Denmark, proving again that the majority were either Christian or Frederik.  I think about 1904 or 1907, King George comes into the picture. 

The Great Hall---amazingly ornate

An interesting piece was a massive globe made of silver.  It still works and the inner part showed how the planets, depicted as Roman gods or creatures, moved around the sun-- a new way of thinking.  The outer parts were the zodiac signs, moving as the stars do.  At the top, a demonstration of how the old way of thinking worked: the sun moving around the earth.

a time piece that showed the new thought of the day: the planets going around the sun

one of the many bedrooms

over 10,000 portraits are in the museum-- lots of them kings and queens

the ceiling is a painting of Gefion, the same goddess with the fountain in Copenhagen

The church, one of the grandest churches I have ever seen, was able to avoid a fire, therefore is all original.  This was here the Crown Prince Joachim married Princess Alexandra in 1995. From 1671 to 1840, the kings of Denmark were crowned in this church, and today it still functions as a small parish church.  Along the upper walkway, surrounding the windows, are shields of the knights of Denmark-- this is the chapel for the knights of the Order of the Elephant and the Grand Cross of Danneborg, two of the highest honors one can achieve in Denmark. 

the church

The organ was built in 1610 and it has never had to be restored. It has 1001 pipes and two billows, therefore needing two people to play it.

the pipe organ

the building looks like it floats

The Rose  or Knight's Room

the ceiling with real antlers for the deer

I do think that one of Will's favorite parts about the castle was that Neptune, in certain lights, was giving the horns of the devil.   Regardless, Frederiksborg Slot is a must see when in Denmark.

Copenhagen Canal Tour

Copenhagen is full of canals, something I didn't realize at all.  When you go there, and you should, you need to take a canal tour.  It takes about an hour and there is a guide explaining what you are photographing, or, if you are Will and not like me, just looking at.  We started off in the morning, one of the first tours actually. It was us and three other ladies.  It started off quite chilly, but when the sun finally broke through the clouds, it warmed up and was a great morning for seeing Copenhagen by water.

on the canal boat

Nyhav harbor

the spire of the old Stock Exchange (Børsen)-- the spire is comprised of 4 dragon tails

Noa Noa, voted the best restaurant in the world in 2010

the Black Diamond--the nickname to the new addition to the Royal Library.  The black granite shimmers in the reflection from the water

a narrow bridge for the boat by Christiansborg Castle

the gates to Christiansborg--where Parliament is

St. Absalon in his horse with the St. Nicholas spire, which is now an art museum

water gates to Amalienborg (where the Queen lives) with the Marble Church dome in the background

the outside steps on the spire to the Vor Frelers Kirke (Church of Our Savior)

local beer

houses along the canals

The Little Mermaid

everyone wants a shot-- included the Buddhists

back at the Nyhavn

raising the Danish Flag along the way

Danish Museum Highlights

We did lots of museums and castles while in Denmark, most just outside of Copenhagen. We went up the coast of Denmark to Helsingør-- the city of Castle Kronborg, what we know it better as Hamlet's Castle. Hamlet was not a real prince of Denmark, but Shakespeare would have known about the castle because of it was famous for extracting money from the ships passing by.

Castle Kronborg, with a model in the foreground

The medieval castle was built by Frederik II in 1574-85 and rebuilt in 1637 after it was burnt.  The castle guarded the opening at the waters of Øresund, where ships passed with goods.  The "guns of Kronborg" watched each vessel and required the captain to pay "sound dues"-- money to pass through the sound.  These sound dues became a goldmine for the Danish kings right up until 1857, when the dues were abolished when the European coutries got together to make one huge pay off (I think it was something like 67,000,000,000 Krona). Income from the dues was used among other things to rebuild the medieval Kronborg into a renaissance castle after it burned.

By the 18th century, the castle was becoming more of a military outpost and, at one point, a prison.  Kronborg has beautiful views of the sound and out to Sweden, but inside, the castle was pretty bland: not a lot of furniture and white-washed walls.  Nothing like our favorite castle, Frederiksborg Slot(more on that one in another post).

me in a guard booth

Portrait of Shakespeare

courtyard

Four-Gate Courtyard

looking out toward the sound

I went also to Fredensborg Slot, a castle built for hunting in 1719-22 by Frederik IV.  The current Royal Couple uses the castle three months in the spring and three months in the fall, and the current crown prince and his family live there.  Because of that, you can only walk around the grounds: 120 hectares of wooded paths, open fields, and the Norwegian Valley, or "Normandsdalen". 

Fredensborg Palace

Danish lion guarding the palace

wooded path down to Lake Esrum

Normandsdalen is an amphitheater-like valley with 68 sandstone statues that depict the common folk of Norway and the Faroe Island. In the middle of the 18th century, Denmark and Norway were still united.  A Norwegian mailman had a hobby of craving the locals into dolls and dressing them in folk costumes.  He sent the dolls to become part of the Royal Collection of Curiosities in Copenhagen.  The dolls were noticed by the king and the mailman, Jørgen Christensen Garnass, was granted an audience with King Frederic V, who commissioned Garnass to re-carve the dolls in ivory.  Those ivory figures then became the basis for larger statues that were placed in an old gravel pit on the grounds of Fredensborg for the Dowager Quen Juliane Marie in 1773.  It was finally finished with the 68 statues (60 Norwegians and 10 Faeroese) in 1784.

Fishermen and peasants stand, wearing traditional clothing and craved into traditional poses.  The sculptures capture everyday life: there is the fisherman, the bride & groom, the wife bringing lunch to her husband.  The statues have deteriorated over the years and have slowly been redone-- I think, in fact, that all of them had been replaced with a replica made of harder stone.    

statues

statues with a gazebo

young girl and farm hand

 
Another museum in Copenhagen that Will and I both visited was the excellent NY Carlsberg Glyptotek.  Founded by Carl Jacobsen, the Danish brewer of Carlsberg beer, the museum was named after his beer.  The museum was completed in 1906 and has two buildings that are connected with the Winter Garden, a beautiful interior garden with palm trees, fountains, and sub-tropical plants.


Jacobson was interested in more than just beer; he is one of Denmark's greatest art patrons. He collected items from the ancient Mediterranean world to works of some of the greatest French Impressionists : Gaugin, Monet, Van Gogh, Rodin, and Degas. 

NY Carlsberg Glyptotek

Winter Garden

King Ramses II and the God Ptah

Greek and Roman sculpture

The Thinker

 Jacobson was a great supporter of Rodin and acquired a lot of the French sculptor's work.  He ordered the sculpture in 1900 and it was sent to Copenhagen in August 1901. Two were actually ordered, one small and one large.  The second Thinker was sent to Copenhagen by 1906.  (I forget which was one was sent first...)

The Burghers of Calais

hallway of the museum

Degas's Dancer

Pharaoh Will

Egyptian Goddess Miriam

We also went to Roskilde, about 30 km west of Copenhagen, to see the Viking Museum--the "Vikingeskibmuseet".  The remains of five ships are the center of the museum.  These ships were deliberately sunk in two of the channels in the water on Roskilde Fjord sometime between AD 1000-1050--most likely to prevent an attack as it was a time when Norwegian Viking raids were quite frequent and fierce.  The remains were found in the 1950s and have undergone extensive preservation methods in order to be displayed.  One reason it is so significant of a find is that all the boats discovered were different kinds, allowing researchers to understand more of the Viking way of life.

long ship, with a model of what it would have looked like with raised sail

inside of the long ship

a trading ship

Granted, what you see is very little.  Most of the boats, ranging from long ships to small fishing boats, are in so many pieces that there is more iron holding them together.  But, conservators and woodworkers have recreated one of the long boats in the Viking ways and then sailed up the fjord, around the tip of Denmark, around Scotland, and arriving in Dublin.  The return trip (a year later) went through the English Channel and around the coast of Belgium.  Something like 60 rowers, 550+ hours at sea, and several weeks-- all to recreate the travels of the Vikings.  There was a movie that showed the experience.  Pretty intense, crazy, and impressive.  Plus, you can dress up like a Viking!  Who can beat that?

the boat that sailed from Roskilde to Dublin and back

I'm a Viking and I'm okay!

sitting in a replica of a long ship-- used for attacks