Charlottenlund Palace ( da, Charlottenlund Slot) is a former royal summer residence in

Charlottenlund Charlottenlund is a suburban area on the coast north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the administrative seat of Gentofte Municipality. Bordered to the east by the Øresund, to the South by Hellerup and to the north by Klampenborg, it is one of the ...

, some north of central

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. 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 Ferdinand Meldahl (16 March 1827 – 3 February 1908) was a Danish architect best known for the reconstruction of Frederiksborg Castle after the fire in 1859. Meldahl was one of the leading proponents of historicism in Denmark. Biography He was ...

in the early 1880s. From 1935 to 2017, the building has housed the Danish Biological Station (''Dansk Biologisk Station''), later renamed Danish Fishery Survey and in the final years called DTU Aqua. It is now a cultural event venue. The Great Hall is occasionally used for classical concerts.

History

Origins

In 1622, King

Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...

established a new deer park at the site, which was to replace Rosenborg Deer Park at

Rosenborg Castle Rosenborg Castle ( da, Rosenborg Slot) is a renaissance castle located in Copenhagen, Denmark. The castle was originally built as a country summerhouse in 1606 and is an example of Christian IV's many architectural projects. It was built in the D ...

just outside Copenhagen. It was referred to variously as "Kongens nye dyrehave ved Skovshoved" ("The King's new deer park at Skovshoved"), "Gentofte dyrehave ved stranden" ("

Gentofte Gentofte () is a district of Gentofte Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Major landmarks include Gentofte Town Hall, Gentofte Hospital and Gentofte Church. Gentofte Lake with surrounding parkland and nature reserves form ...

deer park by the beach"), "Den lille dyrehave ved Ibstrub" ("The small deer park at Ibstrub") and "Freudendahl". In 1663, King Frederick III ceded the deer park to one of his courtiers, Jacob Petersen (''kammertjener'', later ''rigsbaron''). With

Henrik Ruse Henrik Ruse, Baron of Rysensteen (né Henrik Ruse 9 April 162422 February 1679) was a Dutch officer and fortification engineer. Following a period when he served in various armies in Germany and Italy, he wrote a well-researched book documenti ...

, he opened an inn at the site.

Gyldenlund

Due to a dispute at the court, Jacob Petersen had to leave the country. After his property was then taken over by

Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, Count of Laurvig (20 July 1638 – 17 April 1704) was Governor-general of Norway (''Stattholdere i Norge'') from 1664–1699. He was the leading general in Norway during the Scanian War, whose Norwegian leg is conventio ...

, an acknowledged illegitimate son of King Frederick III, it became known as Gyldenlund after its new owner. He renovated the buildings as well as the fishing ponds and constructed a new summer residence in the grounds. The exact location of the new house is not known but it is assumed that it was located at the site of the current palace. Gyldenløve had owned Gyldenlund for some ten years when Frederick III claimed it back in exchange for Skjoldenæsholm at

Ringsted Ringsted is a city located centrally in the Danish island of Zealand. It is the seat of a municipality of the same name. Ringsted is situated approximately 60 km from Copenhagen. Tourism and transport Ringsted is one of Denmark's busies ...

. The king used the house as a summer retreat and for hunting.

Christian V Christian V (15 April 1646 25 August 1699) was king of Denmark and Norway from 1670 until his death in 1699. Well-regarded by the common people, he was the first king anointed at Frederiksborg Castle chapel as absolute monarch since the dec ...

constructed

Jægersborg Allé Jægersborg Allé is a major street in the Charlottenlund and Jægersborg neighborhoods of Gentofte Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs from Strandvejen in the southeast to a junction just east of Kægersborg stati ...

in 1706, originally as a private road, connecting the two royal residences in Charlottenlund and

Jægersborg Jægersborg is a suburban neighbourhood in Gentofte Municipality, some 12 km north of central Copenhagen, Denmark. History The whole area was from at least 1401 a royal estate known as Ibstrup (the earliest sources refer to it as Jepst ...

Charlottenlund

In 1730, Crown Prince Christian (VI) gave Gyldenlund to his sister, Princess Charlotte Amalie. She replaced the house with a new building in the

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires includin ...

. The construction took place under supervision of Engineer Officer H. H. Scheel, probably to a design by

Johan Cornelius Krieger Johan Cornelius Krieger (1683–1755) was a Danish architect and landscape architect, who from the 1720s served as both the country's chief architect, and head of the royal gardens. Krieger oversaw the construction of Fredensborg Palace and its ...

. Many of the building materials came from

Copenhagen Castle Copenhagen Castle ( da, Københavns Slot) was a castle on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built in the late 14th century and was located at the site of the current Christiansborg Palace. History In 1167, Bish ...

which was under demolition. In the middle of the 19th century, Charlottenlund Palace was for many years the home of Louise Charlotte and

Prince William of Hesse-Kassel Prince William of Hesse-Kassel (24 December 1787 – 5 September 1867) was the first son of Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen. Marriage and children On 10 November 1810, William was married in Amalienborg P ...

. Quite atypically for a royal residence, the park remained open to the public. Throughout the century, on and off, it was a favourite excursion spot for Copenhageners on Sundays. In 1869, Crown Prince Frederick and his wife Lovisa of Sweden took over the palace. Both

Christian X of Denmark Christian X ( da, Christian Carl Frederik Albert Alexander Vilhelm; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947) was King of Denmark from 1912 to his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, in the form of a personal union rathe ...

and

Haakon VII of Norway Haakon VII (; born Prince Carl of Denmark; 3 August 187221 September 1957) was the King of Norway from November 1905 until his death in September 1957. Originally a Danish prince, he was born in Copenhagen as the son of the future Frederick V ...

were born in the building. In 1880–81,

undertook a major rebuilding of the palace. The queen dowager Louise lived there until her death in 1926.

Later history

The royal family discontinued using the palace in 1935 and made it available to the Danish Biological Station (''Dansk Biologisk Station''), later renamed to Danish Fishery Survey (''Danmarks Fiskeriundersøgelser''). The Danish National Aquarium opened in a corner of the park in 1939 where it remained until 2013 when

The Blue Planet ''The Blue Planet'' is a British nature documentary series created and produced by the BBC. It premiered on 12 September 2001 in the United Kingdom. It is narrated by David Attenborough. Described as "the first ever comprehensive series on t ...

was inaugurated in

Kastrup Kastrup () is a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark, on the east coast of Amager in Tårnby Municipality. It is the site of Copenhagen Airport. In Danish, the airport is often called ''Kastrup Lufthavn'' (Kastrup Airport) or ''Københavns Lufthavn, Kas ...

. The Danish Fishery Survey, now called DTU Aqua, became a department under the

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's fir ...

(''DTU'') in 2001. The department planned to move to a new building at DTU's main campus in Lyngby in 2015. The future use of Charlottenlund Palace had not yet been decided as of January 2016. As of 2019, Charlottenlund Palace is being used for caterings as well as office space for a vast amount of companies.

Architecture

Meldahl's extension of the palace in the 1880s adapted the original Baroque palace to reflect the French Renaissance style that characterizes its architecture today. Meldahl extended the building with two bays and the two corner risalits on the front side. The central hall with dome and lantern were also added. On the garden side there is a three bay central projection. The building was listed in 1918.

Park and surroundings

The park has an area of . The original Baroque park was redesigned into an English-style Romantic garden in the 1880s. It contains several small buildings, including an ice house and a thatched, yellow building with timber framing that has been used both as a wash house and a guard house for the Royal Life Guards. The park adjoins Charlottenlund Beach Park and Charlottenlund Forest.

References

External links

Charlottenlund Palace
at the website ''Royal Danish Palaces,'' managed by the

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...

. {{coord, 55, 45, 1, N, 12, 34, 50, E, type:landmark_region:DK, display=title Palaces in Northern Zealand Royal residences in Denmark Listed buildings and structures in Gentofte Municipality