Rosenborg Castle Gardens

Last updated
Kongens Have
Rosenborg Castle - garden and barracks.jpg
A view of Rosenborg Castle from Kongens Have
Rosenborg Castle Gardens
Type Urban park
Location Copenhagen, Denmark
Coordinates 55°41′06″N12°34′44″E / 55.685°N 12.579°E / 55.685; 12.579
Area12 hectares (30 acres)
Created1606
Visitors2.5 million
StatusOpen all year

Rosenborg Castle Gardens (Danish: Kongens Have literally The King's Garden) is the oldest and most visited park in central Copenhagen, Denmark. Established in the early 17th century as the private gardens of King Christian IV's Rosenborg Castle, the park also contains several other historical buildings, including Rosenborg Barracks, home to the Royal Guards, as well as a high number of statues and monuments. The park also holds art exhibitions and other events such as concerts in the summer.

Contents

History

The Renaissance gardens

Otto Heider's plan from 1649 Rosenborg gardens - Otto Henneer 1649.jpg
Otto Heider's plan from 1649

The park traces its history back to 1606 when King Christian IV acquired land outside Copenhagen's East Rampart and established a pleasure garden in Renaissance style which also delivered fruit, vegetables and flowers for the royal household at Copenhagen Castle. The garden had a relatively small pavilion which was later expanded into present day Rosenborg Castle which was completed in 1624. In 1634, Charles Ogier, secretary to the French ambassador to Denmark, compared the gardens to the Tuileries Garden in Paris. A drawing by Otto Heider from 1649, the oldest dated garden plan from Denmark, provides knowledge about the layout of the original garden. The garden contained a pavilion, statues, a fountain and various other features. Its plants included mulberries, wine, apples, pears, and lavender. [1]

The Baroque gardens

Entrance to Rosenborg Gardens in 1780 Kongens Have entrance 1780.jpg
Entrance to Rosenborg Gardens in 1780

Later in the century, as fashions changed, the garden was redesigned. A garden plan from 1669 show a garden maze, a typical feature of the Baroque garden. It had an intricate system of paths which led to a central space with an octagonal summerhouse in its centre. From about 1710, after Frederiksberg Palace had been built, Rosenborg Castle, as well as its gardens, was largely abandoned by the royal family and the gardens were instead opened to the public.

Johan Cornelius Krieger was appointed gardener of the Orangery in 1711 and after becoming head gardener in 1721 he redesigned the garden in the Baroque style.

Layout

One of the avenues Kongens Have - avenue.jpg
One of the avenues

The 12-hectare park is bounded by the streets Gothersgade, Øster Voldgade, Sølvgade and Kronprinsessegade. Rosenborg Castle is located in the north-western section of the park and is surrounded by a moat on three sides. The two main entrance are the King's Gate at the corner of Gothersgade and Kronprinsessegade, and the Queen's Gate at the corner of Øster Voldgade and Sølvgade. There are also four other entrances to the park.

One of the avenues Kongens Have - perennial flower beds.jpg
One of the avenues

A dominant feature of the scenery are the two diagonal lime tree avenues which intersect near the centre of the park and are known as the Knight's Path (Danish: Kavalergangen) and the Lady's Path (Danish: Damegangen), while the rest of the paths are laid out in a grid pattern. The tree-lined avenues were planted as part of Krieger's Baroque garden but the underlying network of paths can be seen in Heiders' plan from 1649.

Special sections include the PerennialsGarden in front of the wall along Sølvgade and the Rose Garden.

Buildings

Rosenborg Barracks

Rosenborg Barracks Rosenborg Barracks.jpg
Rosenborg Barracks

Rosenborg Barracks is located on the corner of Gothersgade and Øster Voldgade and was originally a pavilion and two long conservatory buildings built by Lambert van Haven for Christian V. In 1709 they were built together to form one large orangery complex and in 1743 it was redesigned into the Baroque style by Johan Cornelius Krieger. From 1885 to 1886 it was converted for use by the Royal Life Guard by Engineer Officer Ernst Peymann. In 1985 they moved to new premises at Høvelte between Allerød and Birkerød and since Rosenborg Barracks has only housed guards on duty at Copenhagen.

The Commandant's House at Rosenborg Castle Garden (1763) Kommandantboligen (Kongens Have).JPG
The Commandant's House at Rosenborg Castle Garden (1763)

Commandant's House

The Commandant's House is located just left of the main entrance to Rosenborg Castle and faces a lawn. It was built from 1760 to 1763 to designs by Jacob Fortling. The building is today used as an exhibition space.

Slotsforvalterboligen Slotsforvalterboligen.jpg
Slotsforvalterboligen

Slotsforvalterboligen

Slotsforvalterboligen fronts Øster Voldgade. It was built in 1688 and extended with an extra story in 1777. The gateway affords access to the park. [2]

The Gartner's House is attached to Slotsforvalterboligen. It was built around the same time

Hercules Pavilion

The Hercules Pavilion Herkulespavillionen2.JPG
The Hercules Pavilion

The Hercules Pavilion stands at the end of Kavalergangen and takes its name from a statue of Hercules positioned in a deep niche between two Tuscan columns. It is flanked by two smaller niches with statues of Orpheus and Eurydice. The three statues were made by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Baratta and acquired by Frederik IV during his visit to Italy. [3]

Wrought-iron grill and pavilions

Along Kronprinsessegade and parts of Gothersgade, the park is enclosed by a wrought-iron grill incorporating 16 small pavilions, which opens to the street side.

After the Copenhagen Fire of 1795 there was an urgent need for new housing and Crown Prince Frederik put the southern strip of his garden at disposal for the construction of a new street which was to connect Gothersgade to Sølvgade. It was named Kronprinsessegade (en. Crown Princess Street) in honour of Crown Princess Marie Sophie. [4] New residential buildings soon sprung up along the south side of the street but in the same time the need arose for a barrier toward the garden and City Architect Peter Meyn was charged with the commission. He had just returned from Paris where he had been struck by the Pont-Neuf with its iron grill and many small shops and the street life which surrounded it. With this as an inspiration, he designed the new grill along the edge of the park with 14 small shop pavilions which were completed in 1806. The two last pavilions, opposite Landemærket, were not built until 1920. Before this time, the site was occupied by two buildings, Exercerhus (en. The Drill House) and Rosenborg Brøndanstalt. [5]

The pavilions are built to a Newclassical design and are six ells wide, six ells deep and six ells high. [4]

Among the goods which were sold from the pavilions were cakes and stockings. Later they were available to architects and artists from the Roydal Arts Academy as a sort of grant. Today they are rented out by the Palaces and Properties Agency on two-years leases with possibility of extension. There is a required minimum opening time of 20 hours per week and the use need be relevant to the site's history and in the same time put it in a contemporary context. [5]

Public art

The Lion and the Horse Lion and Horse - Kongens Have - Copenhagen - DSC07901.JPG
The Lion and the Horse

The oldest sculpture in the garden is The Horse and the Lion, commissioned by Christian IV from Peter Husum in 1617 and completed in 1625. A near copy of an antique marble sculpture at Capitoline Hill in Rome, it depicts a lion with a humanoid face which is tearing apart a horse which it has just brought down. The subject is associated with a Persian legend about the battle between light and darkness. The statue was probably placed in the garden after its completion but temporarily moved to Glückstadt in 1643 in connection with Prince Frederick (III)'s marriage to Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1643, supposedly as an expression of the king's aggravation over his cousin George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg's failure to assist him in the Battle of Lutter in 1626 with the lion representing the Coat of arms of Denmark and the horse that of the Duchy. The statue was moved back to the garden at Rosenborg Castle when Frederick III ascended the throne and is now located between the two ring riding columns in the southern section of the park. [6]

The 17 marble balls surrounding the Matzen Lawn are believed to come from the never completed St. Ann's Rotunda, a monumental church which was under construction on a nearby site but never completed, and have been placed in the park since at least 1783.

The Boy on the Swan is a fountain consisting of a 148 cm tall bronze sculpture of a small boy riding on a swan which sprays water from its beak, resting on a granite plinth in the middle of a depressed basin. The bronze sculpture was created by H.E. Freund and replaced a sandstone figure with the same motif which was made by the French sculptor le Clerc and placed in the garden in 1738. [7]

The monument to Viggo Hørup was designed by Jens Ferdinand Willumsen and installed in 1907 at the initiative of the newspaper Politiken which he had co-founded in 1884. The monument was blown up by the Germans in 1945, shortly before the end of World War II, but a new cast was made after the war. The head of the original statue is on display in the J.F. Willumsens Museum. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indre By</span> District in Central Copenhagen

Indre By, also known as Copenhagen Center or K or Downtown Copenhagen, is an administrative district (bydel) in central Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It covers an area of 4.65 square kilometres (1.80 sq mi), has a population of 26,223, and a population density of 5,638 per km2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fredensborg Palace</span> Danish royal familys spring and autumn residence

Fredensborg Palace is a palace located on the eastern shore of Lake Esrum in Fredensborg on the island of Zealand (Sjælland) in Denmark. It is the Danish royal family’s spring and autumn residence, and is often the site of important state visits and events in the royal family. It is the most used of the royal family’s residences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlottenlund Palace</span> Palace in Charlottenlund, Denmark

Charlottenlund Palace is a former royal summer residence in Charlottenlund, some 10 km (6 mi) north of central Copenhagen, Denmark. The palace was named after Princess Charlotte Amalie, who was responsible for the construction of the original palace. It was later extended and adapted for Crown Prince Frederick VIII to a design by Ferdinand Meldahl in the early 1880s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kongens Nytorv</span> Public square in Copenhagen, Denmark

Kongens Nytorv is a public square in Copenhagen, Denmark, centrally located at the end of the pedestrian street Strøget. The largest square of the city, it was laid out by Christian V in 1670 in connection with a major extension of the fortified city, and has an equestrian statue of him at its centre. The initiative moved the centre of the city from the medieval area around Gammeltorv, at that time a muddy medieval marketplace, to a cobbled new square with a garden complex, inspired by the Royal city planning seen in Paris from the early 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosenborg Barracks</span> Building in Copenhagen, Denmark

Rosenborg Barracks, one of two barracks of the Royal Danish Life Guard, is located next to Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark. Its address is Gothersgade but it has a long facade along Øster Voldgade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gothersgade</span> Street in Copenhagen, Denmark

Gothersgade is a major street in the City Centre of Copenhagen, Denmark. It extends from Kongens Nytorv to Sortedam Lake, passing Rosenborg Castle and Gardens, Nørreport Station and Copenhagen Botanic Gardens on the way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Øster Voldgade</span>

Øster Voldgade, together with Vester Voldgade and Nørre Voldgade, forms a succession of large streets which arches around the central and oldest part of the Zealand side of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs north-east from Gothersgade at Nørreport Station to Georg Brandes Plads, between the Copenhagen Botanical Gardens and Rosenborg Castle Gardens, and continues straight to a large junction at the southern end of Oslo Plads, near Østerport Station, where it turns into Folke Bernadotte Allé.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kronprinsessegade</span> Street in Copenhagen, Denmark

Kronprinsessegade is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark. Noted for its fine Neoclassical houses, it extends from Gothersgade and runs along the southern boundary of Rosenborg Castle Garden, passing Sølvgade and the Nyboder district of old naval barracks before finally joining Øster Voldgade close to Østerport Station. The David Collection, a museum which displays a large collection of Islamic art as well as Danish and European fine and applied arts, is based at No. 30.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dronningens Tværgade</span> Street in Copenhagen, Denmark

Dronningens Tværgade is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark, which runs from Bredgade to Rosenborg Castle Garden. The street originally formed a link between the King's Garden and the Queen's Garden. With the Odd Fellows Mansion on Bredgade and the central pavilions of the east fringe of the castle garden located at each their end, the street has axial qualities. These are accentuated by the Dronningegården Estate, a Functionalist housing complex from the 1940s, which forms an urban space around the intersection with Adelgade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sølvgade Barracks</span> Former military facility in Copenhagen, Denmark

Sølvgade Barracks is a former military facility from 1771 located on the corner of Sølvgade and Øster Voldgade in central Copenhagen, Denmark. The barracks closed in 1926 and the large Baroque complex designed by Nicolas-Henri Jardin then served as headquarters for DSB, the Danish state railways, until 2013, when the building was converted into student apartments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civiletatens Materialgård</span> Building in Copenhagen, Denmark

Civiletatens Materialgård is a former storage facility at Frederiksholm Canal in Copenhagen, Denmark. The complex was used for the storing of materials used for the royal palaces but also has a long history as home and work place for sculptors associated with the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Together with the adjacent Fæstningens Materialgård, its military counterpart, and the Royal Horse Guards Barracks, it forms a cluster of low, yellow-washed buildings alongside Frederiksholm Canal. It now houses the Art Academy's School of Sculptury as well as residences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sølvgade</span> Street in Copenhagen, Denmark

Sølvgade is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark, extending north-west from Borgergade to The Lakes where Fredens Bro connects it to Fredensgade. The section from Kronprinsessegade to Øster Voldgade follows the walled north-eastern margin of Rosenborg Castle Garden and the next section, from Øster Voldgade to the intersection with Farimagsgade, named Sølvtorvet although it is little more than a busy street junction, separates Copenhagen Botanical Garden from Østre Anlæg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Søgade, Copenhagen</span>

Vester, Nørre and Øster Søgade is a succession of streets along the eastern side of The Lakes in central Copenhagen, Denmark. The streets run from Gammel Kongevej to the south to the beginning of Østerbrogade at Lille Trianglen in the north. Vester Søgade runs from Gammel Kongevej to Gyldenløvesgade, Nørre Søgade runs from Gyldenløvesgade to Dronning Louises Bro, and Øster Søgade from Dronning Louises Bro to Lille Triangel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farimagsgade</span>

Vester Farimagsgade, Nørre Farimagsgade and Øster Farimagsgade is a succession of streets which together connect the south-western Vesterbro to the northern Østerbro along the periphery of the city centre in Copenhagen, Denmark. A continuation of Reventlowsgade, Vester Farimagsgade extends from Vesterbrogade at Vesterport Station and initially runs along the sunken railway tracks on the left before soon reaching H. C. Andersens Boulevard. It then turns into Nørre Farimagsgade and continues behind Ørsted Park to Gothersgade where it becomes Øster Farimagsgade and proceeds along another green space, the Copenhagen Botanical Garden, passes Sølvtorvet and the neighbourhood of terraced houses known as Kartoffelrækkerne before terminating at Lille Triangel where Østerbrogade begins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Park of Frederiksborg Castle</span>

The park of Frederiksborg Castle is located to the north and west of Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød, Denmark. It consists of a formal Baroque garden and a Romantic landscape garden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lapidarium of Kings</span> Sculpture Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark

The Lapidarium of Kings is a lapidarium in Copenhagen, Denmark. It exhibits a royal collection of sculptures, natural stone figures and plaster models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rigensgade</span> Street in Copenhagen, Denmark

Rigensgade is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It links Sølvgade in the west with Øster Voldgade in the east. An underpass for pedestrians link the beginning of the street with Rosenborg Castle Gardens on the other side of Sølvgade. Notable buildings include the former Garrison Hospital. and the Methodist Jerusalem's Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of Hans Christian Andersen, Rosenborg Castle Gardens</span> Bronze statue in Copenhagen, Denmark

The Statue of Hans Christian Andersen in Rosenborg Castle Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark, is a bronze statue of the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. This is one of many statues to the author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosenborg Brøndanstalt</span> Danish mineral spa and water factory

Rosenborg Brøndanstalt was a mineral spa and mineral water factory located in Gothersgade in Copenhagen, Denmark. Rosenborg Brøndanstalt was founded on 23 March 1831 at the initiative of Jonas Collin, medical doctor Ole Bang, and Johan Georg Forchhammer to provide the citizens of Copenhagen with an alternative to visiting spas abroad. First Frederik VI and later Christian VIII contributed to the project by donating a strip of Rosenborg Castle Gardens along Gothersgade. The buildings were built to a design by royal building inspector Jørgen Hansen Koch in 1833.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Blom</span> Danish master mason, architect and developer

Thomas Andreas Blom was a Danish master mason, architect and developer who contributed to the rebuilding of Copenhagen in the years after the Copenhagen Fire of 1795 and the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. He initially worked in a partnership with his mother and three brothers as Bloms Enke & Sønner, constructing approximately one building per year between 1799 and 1808. After being licensed as a master mason in 1810, he continued the work independently. Most of his surviving buildings are listed on the Danish registry of protected buildings and places. He was also active in Copenhagen Fire Corps, reaching the rank of deputy fire chief. He was a driving force behind the foundation of Håndværkerstiftelsen as a charity providing affordable accommodation for old craftsmen and their widows in difficult circumstances.

References

  1. "Gasværket". AOK. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  2. "Øster Voldgade 4b" (in Danish). indenforvoldene.dk. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  3. "The Hercules Pavilion". Palaces and Properties Agency. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  4. 1 2 "Meyers Deli i Kongens Have". Meyers Deli. Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2011-02-16.
  5. 1 2 "Hvad er der i pavillonerne?". AOK. Retrieved 2011-02-16.
  6. "Hesten of Løven=Danish". Styrelsen for Slotte of Kulturejendomme. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  7. "Drengen på svanen" (in Danish). Styrelsen for Slotte oog Kulturejendomme. Archived from the original on 2012-05-27. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  8. "The Hørup Monument". Agency for Palaces & Cultural Properties. Archived from the original on 2010-02-13. Retrieved 2012-01-17.