Rosenborg Castle: A Dutch Renaissance Royal Residence in Denmark
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very High
- Country
- Denmark
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Danish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page10 sections
History
Rosenborg Castle is a Dutch Renaissance castle in Copenhagen, Denmark, built for King Christian IV beginning in 1606 as a summer residence north of the city’s defensive ramparts. It formed part of Christian IV’s extensive building programme and was designed as a royal retreat near the capital.
Construction under Christian IV
The castle developed through several building stages. A two-storey palace was erected in 1606–1607, then enlarged twice between 1613 and 1615. Between 1616 and 1624, it was raised by another storey and expanded with towers, producing its principal form. A final stair turret was added in 1634. The work was directed by Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger, with Bertel Lange associated with the structural planning and Christian IV himself substantially involved in the project.
Rosenborg stood within a royal garden laid out and embellished in Renaissance style shortly before construction of the main building. Known as Kongens Have, or the Rosenborg Castle Garden, it is Denmark’s oldest royal garden. The castle and garden were surrounded by a moat, forming a planned royal retreat outside the city’s fortifications.
Royal residence and changing use
Danish monarchs used Rosenborg as a royal residence until about 1710. Frederik III and Christian V continued to stay there frequently, but the court increasingly favoured other residences during the early eighteenth century. Frederik IV regarded Rosenborg as old-fashioned, and after his reign the castle was used as a residence only twice during emergencies.
Rosenborg again accommodated the royal household after Christiansborg Palace burned completely in 1794. It was also used during the British attack on Copenhagen in 1801, a military assault connected with the Napoleonic Wars. Christian VII was the last Danish king to spend a night at Rosenborg, following the Danish defeat in the battle at Copenhagen’s roadstead. Christian IV died at the castle on 26 February 1648.
Preservation and royal collections
Rosenborg remained intact with much of its historic interior furnishing and opened to the public in 1838. It is state property and houses a museum devoted to Danish royal culture and the Oldenburg dynasty, the royal house that ruled Denmark during the period represented by the collections, from the late sixteenth through the nineteenth century. The castle is listed as a monument on the Kulturstyrelsen register.
During the German invasion of Denmark in 1940, the Danish Crown Regalia were hidden in the castle’s underground chambers because of fears that they might be looted. They were recovered after the war and returned to public display. The regalia had been exhibited at Rosenborg since 1922. Barracks beside the castle house the Royal Life Guards, Denmark’s military guard unit responsible for protecting the monarch and designated royal residences.
Remains
Rosenborg survives as a compact Renaissance castle in the Dutch Renaissance style, a form characterised by architectural shapes and decoration developed in the Netherlands and widely adopted in Danish buildings of the period. The building stands within the former royal garden and retains its staged development, with the early palace incorporated into the enlarged castle, towers added on the east and west sides, and the later stair turret completed in 1634.
Exterior and arrangement
The first palace occupied two storeys when it was built in 1606–1607. Enlargements carried out between 1613 and 1615 produced the present main area, while the work of 1616–1624 added a further storey. Two towers were placed on the east side and given tower roofs, and a taller single tower was built on the west. The stair turret added in 1634 completed the castle’s principal exterior development. A moat enclosed the building within the royal garden.
Principal interiors
The Long Hall
The Long Hall occupies the third floor and was completed in 1624. It was first intended as a ballroom, became a Royal Reception Room and banquet hall around 1700, and acquired the name Knight’s Hall only in the second half of the nineteenth century. Christian V partly modernised the room with twelve tapestries showing his victories in the Scanian War of 1675–1679, a conflict between Denmark and Sweden.
The surviving stucco ceiling dates from the beginning of the eighteenth century. It places the Danish coat of arms within the insignia of the Orders of the Elephant and Dannebrog, Danish orders of chivalry. Side reliefs show events from the early reign of Frederik IV, including the liberation of the serfs and the establishment of the dragoons and land militia. Ceiling frescoes by Hendrick Krock depict the royal regalia.
The hall contains the coronation chair used by Denmark’s absolutist kings and the queens’ throne, with three silver lions positioned before it. Other furnishings include a king’s throne made from narwhal tusk in 1665, a queen’s throne from 1731, and Christian VI’s throne from 1740. Narwhal tusk, the animal’s long ivory tooth, was historically valued as a carving material. Much of the hall’s silver furniture dates from the seventeenth century.
Royal chambers
Royal chambers are arranged over three storeys. Their furnishings are mainly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and include furniture, portraits of kings and queens, tapestries, valuables, and other royal memorabilia. The castle also houses the eighteenth-century Flora Danica porcelain service, decorated with precisely painted motifs representing Danish flora.
Underground treasury
An underground treasury contains objects made of gold, silver, and precious stones, together with the Danish Crown Regalia and a coronation carpet. The regalia include Christian IV’s crown from 1569, Christian V’s crown from 1670, the queen’s crown from 1731, Frederik III’s sceptre from 1648, a royal orb from 1648, a coronation rapier from 1648, and a vessel for holy oils from the same year. These ceremonial objects include crowns, sceptres, weapons, and vessels used in Danish coronation rites.
The Royal Collections extend beyond the regalia and interiors, presenting objects associated with Danish royal culture from the late sixteenth century under Christian IV through the nineteenth century. Some items formerly belonged to members of the nobility and aristocracy, placing the castle’s preserved furnishings within a wider history of the Danish court.
