Charlottenlund Palace () 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 ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
,
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
. 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.
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 established a new deer park at the site, which was to replace
Rosenborg Deer Park at
Rosenborg Castle
Rosenborg Castle () is a renaissance castle 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 Dutch Renaissance style, t ...
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, 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, 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. The king used the house as a summer retreat and for hunting.
Christian V constructed
Jægersborg Allé in 1706, originally as a private road, connecting the two royal residences in Charlottenlund and
Jægersborg.
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 Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...
. The construction took place under supervision of Engineer Officer H. H. Scheel, probably to a design by
Johan Cornelius Krieger.
Many of the building materials came from
Copenhagen Castle 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. He was titular Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel-(Rumpenheim)
and for many years heir ...
.
[ 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 and Haakon VII of Norway were born in the building. In 1880–81, Ferdinand Meldahl 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 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, Kast ...
. The Danish Fishery Survey, now called DTU Aqua, became a department under the Technical University of Denmark
The Technical University of Denmark (), 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 first polytechnic, and it is today ran ...
(''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 number 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.
See also
* List of Baroque residences
* 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 ...
* Charlottenlund station
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, 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 S ...
.
{{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
1850s architecture in Denmark
Frederick VIII of Denmark