Christiansborg Palace (, ) is a palace and government building on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the seat of the Danish Parliament (), and the Supreme Court of Denmark.

The present building, the third with this name, is the last in a series of successive castles and palaces constructed on the same site since the erection of the first castle in 1167. Since the early fifteenth century, the various buildings have served as the base of the central administration; until 1794 as the principal residence of the Danish kings and after 1849 as the seat of parliament.

The palace today bears witness to three eras of Danish architecture, as the result of two serious fires. The first fire occurred in 1794 and the second in 1884. The main part of the current palace, finished in 1928, is in the historicist Neo-baroque style. The chapel dates back to 1826 and is in a neoclassical style. The showgrounds were built from 1738 to 1746, in a baroque style.

Christiansborg Palace is owned by the Danish Government, and is run by the Palaces and Properties Agency. Several parts of the palace are open to the public.

History

Absalon's Castle

right|thumb|The underground excavations with the ruins of Absalon's Castle

The first castle on the site was Absalon's Castle, built in 1167 by the bishop Absalon. According to the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus, Bishop Absalon of Roskilde built a castle in 1167 on a small island outside Copenhagen Harbour. The castle was made up by a curtain wall, encircling an enclosed courtyard with several buildings, such as the bishop's palace, a chapel and several minor buildings.

At the death of Absalon in 1201, possession of the castle and city of Copenhagen passed to the bishops of Roskilde. A few decades later, however, a bitter feud erupted between crown and church, and for almost two centuries the ownership of the castle and city was contested between kings and bishops. Furthermore, the castle was frequently under attack, for example by Wend pirates and the Hanseatic cities, and during the years 1249 to 1259 it was occupied and plundered.

In 1370, King Valdemar IV of Denmark was defeated in a conflict with the Hanseatic League, who ordered the castle to be demolished. They sent 40 stonemasons to demolish the castle stone by stone. The castle had long been a terrible nuisance to the Hanseatic cities' trade in the Sound, and the time had now come to remove it.

Copenhagen Castle

thumb|Copenhagen Castle in 1698

During the years after the demolition of Bishop Absalon's castle by the Hansa League in 1369, the ruins on the island were covered with earthworks, on which a new stronghold, Copenhagen Castle, was built. This was completed in the late 14th century.

The palace and church were ruined by a fire in 1794, The palace was to contain premises for the royal family, the legislature and the judiciary, and was built in Neo-baroque style in reinforced concrete with granite-covered façades. Fragments from C.F. Hansen's palace were preserved in the north façade facing Prince George's Yard (Prins Jørgens Gård). The original roof was tiled, but after a national collection, the tiles were replaced with copper in 1937–1938. A weather vane with two crowns was later added to the tower, and at 106 meters became the tallest tower in the city.

During the digging work, they came across the ruins of Absalon's Castle and Copenhagen Castle. It was decided to make them publicly accessible, and the ruins under the current palace, and the historical exhibition opened to the public in 1924.

Christiansborg Palace today

left|thumb|1: The palace, 2: King's Gate, 3: The Palace Square, 4: Inner Courtyard, 5: Entrance to the parliament, 6: The Rigsdag Courtyard, 7: The Theatre Museum, 8: The Royal Stables, 9: The Marble Bridge, 10: The Show Grounds, 11: The Riding School, 12: Thorvaldsen's Museum, 13: Entrance to the Supreme Court, 14: Queen's Gate, Entrance to the Royal Reception Rooms,15 The Palace Chapel, 16: Prince George's Courtyard

The palace is roughly divided in the middle, with the Parliament located in the southern wing and the Royal Reception Rooms, the Supreme Court and the Prime Minister's Office in the northern wing.

Several parts of the palace are open to the public after published schedule with guided tours available, for a substantial fee. It is centrally located in Copenhagen's Indre By ("City Center") district.

Royal Reception Rooms

thumb|The Queen's Gate is the principal entrance to The Royal Reception Rooms.The Royal Reception Rooms at Christiansborg Palace are located on the ground floor and first floor in the northern half of the palace. The Rooms are used for official functions of the monarch such as banquets, state dinners, the New Year's levée, diplomatic accreditations, audiences and meetings of the council of state.

The Reception Rooms are richly adorned with furniture and works of art rescued from the two earlier palaces, as well as decorations by some of the best Danish artists, such as Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Laurits Tuxen, Joakim Skovgaard and Bjørn Nørgaard.

To reach the Royal Reception Rooms one goes through the Queen's Gate (Dronningeporten), and through the Hall of the Halberdiers (Drabantsalen) to the King's Stairway (Kongetrappen). At the foot of the stairs are the Audience Chamber (Audiensgemakket) and the State Council Room (Statsrådssalen). The King holds an audience every other Monday and attends Council with the government as required – usually on Wednesdays. The King in Council signs new Acts after their adoption in Parliament. The Audience Chamber and the State Council Room are the only Royal Reception Rooms that are closed to the public.

The King's Stairway gives access to the Tower Hall (Tårnsalen). The Tower Hall displays a series of tapestries with motifs from Danish folk songs, woven after cartoons painted by Joakim Skovgaard.

thumb|The Throne Room is where foreign ambassadors present their [[credentials to the King.]]Facing the Palace Square is the oval Throne Room (Tronsalen) where foreign ambassadors present their credentials to King Frederik X. The Throne Room gives access to the balcony where the Danish monarchs are proclaimed. The Throne Room is decorated with a large ceiling painting by Kræsten Iversen, depicting how the Danish flag, Dannebrog, fell from the sky in Estonia in 1219.

The Royal Reception Rooms also include the Fredensborg Hall (Fredensborgsalen), with Laurits Tuxen's painting of King Christian IX and his whole family together at Fredensborg Palace, and parts of the Queen's Library.

thumb|The Great Hall with [[Bjørn Nørgaard's tapestries.]]

The Great Hall is the largest and most spectacular of the Royal Reception Rooms. The Hall is 40 metres long with a ceiling height of 10 metres, and a gallery runs all the way around the room. The Hall seats 400 guests and is used for banquets, state dinners and receptions.

The Great Hall was renovated on the occasion of Queen Margrethe II's 60th birthday when artist Bjørn Nørgaard's 17 tapestries recounting the history of Denmark were hung on the walls. The tapestries were a gift from the Danish business community on the occasion of Queen Margrethe II's 50th birthday.

The Alexander Hall (Alexandersalen) is named for Bertel Thorvaldsen's marble frieze "Alexander the Great Enters Babylon". The frieze was made for the second Christiansborg Palace, and parts of it survived the fire. It was later restored and mounted in this room. The Hall is used for smaller receptions and official dinners, often in connection with state visits.

Parliament Wing

thumb|The [[Folketing Chamber]]

thumb|The Lobby (Vandrehallen)

thumb|The [[Landsting (Denmark)|Landsting Chamber]]

The first floor of the Parliament Wing is structured around the Lobby. At both ends of Lobby are the chambers of Rigsdagen, the former bicameral parliament; the Folketing chamber is located at the far end and the Landsting located at the other (the far chamber has been the only one in use since the Folketing became the sole legislative assembly in 1953). Along the hall are various rooms such as the Speaker's office and offices for the administration.

Ruins under the palace

Under the present palace lie the ruins of Bishop Absalon's Castle and Copenhagen Castle. When the foundations of the present Christiansborg Palace were being cast, workers came across ruins of several buildings and parts of a curtain wall.

Experts were called in from the National Museum of Denmark and the ruins, which lay beneath the inner palace yard, were unearthed. Public interest in these ruins, which dated back to around the year 1167, was tremendous. It was therefore decided that the ruins should not be covered over again but preserved for posterity. The reinforced concrete structure erected to cover the ruins was the biggest of its kind in Denmark when it was built in 1908.

The ruins beneath the palace square were excavated in 1917 and a cover was also built over them. The ruins have been open to the public since 1924. The Ruins Exhibition was renovated during the period 1974–77 and has remained more or less untouched since then.

The Palace Chapel

thumb|left|The Palace Chapel

Christiansborg Palace Chapel is a part of the palace which is at the disposal of the Danish monarch.

From 2007 to 2009 the Royal Stables underwent a thorough renovation to meet the requirements of current animal welfare law.

thumb|The Riding School with the [[royal box on the balcony in the background]]

A Riding School is located in the northern wing of the Riding Ground Complex, opposite the Court Theatre. The Riding School is used for horse shows and to exercise the horses of the Royal Stables. On occasion it is also used for various cultural events such as opera or theatre performances.

The interior is more or less unchanged since the construction in the 1740s. It is equipped with a balcony and a royal box to allow audiences the possibility to attend exercises and performances. The royal box is unique as it is the only royal room preserved from the first palace.

The Court Theatre

thumb|The [[auditorium of the Court Theatre]]

The Court Theatre is located over the stables in the southern wing of the Riding Ground Complex, opposite the Riding School. Since 1922 the Court Theatre has housed the collection of the Theatre Museum. The auditorium is often used for theatre performances, lectures and television programmes.

Already at the Copenhagen Castle, one of the wings was fitted out as a theatre. However, the first Christiansborg Palace was constructed without a theatre. During the early reign of King Christian VII it became customary to have theatre performances in the Banqueting Hall, and in 1766 it was decided to construct a proper court theatre. A harness storeroom was adapted to an auditorium. The theatre was designed by the French architect Nicolas-Henri Jardin and inaugurated by King Christian VII and Queen Caroline Matilda in January 1767. Little remains of this original theatre as it was reconstructed in 1842 following the designs of architect Jørgen Hansen Koch. In time the Court Theatre came to function as an annex to the Royal Danish Theatre. In 1881 the theatre was closed as performance venue following the tragic fire of the Ringtheater in Vienna which underlined the dangers involved in the continued use of old theatres.

The Tower

In June 2014, a viewing platform in the Tower, still the tallest in the city, was made accessible to the public, while the interior of the Tower was refurbished and a restaurant opened in place of what was once a storage room. Access to the viewing platform is free, though passing through a security check is required due to the official nature of the building. There is a comfortable lift giving access to upper levels.

The View

The View, an observation deck of the Tower, gives an opportunity to enjoy the views of the following buildings:

Other features

The Marble Bridge and the pavilions

thumb|The Marble Bridge and the pavilions

In Häusser's original project from the first Christiansborg, the two wings of the palace were linked by a gatehouse at the Frederiksholms Kanal end, and a drawbridge led over the canal. The Palace Building Commission was not completely satisfied with the proposal and asked two young architects working for the royal building authority, Nicolai Eigtved and Lauritz de Thurah, to come up with an alternative suggestion.

Their proposal included a permanent bridge over Frederiksholms Kanal forming the main entrance to the palace and two portal pavilions flanking an open drive and closing the complex off between the two wings. Both bridge and pavilions were in the new rococo style.

Responsibility was transferred to Eigtved, who was the prime mover behind the project.

The bridge was extremely elegant— sandstone covered with medallion decorations by the sculptor Louis August le Clerc. The pavements were paved with Norwegian marble, hence the name the Marble Bridge (Marmorbro), and the roadway paved with cobblestones.

The pavilions were every bit as magnificent as the bridge. They were covered with sandstone from Saxony, and the sculptor Johan Christof Petzoldt richly decorated the concave roofs with the royal couple's back-to-back monograms and four figures on each roof symbolising the royal couple's positive traits. The interior decoration was by the court's master stonemason Jacob Fortling. The bridge and pavilions were finished in 1744.

In 1996, when Copenhagen was European Capital of Culture, the Palaces and Properties Agency finished a restoration of the Showgrounds that had taken many years. The Marble Bridge and Pavilions were restored between 1978 and 1996 by architect Erik Hansen and the Show Grounds from 1985–1996 by Royal Inspector of Listed State Buildings Gehrdt Bornebusch.

King Christian IX's equestrian statue

A collection was started for the construction of a monument to King Christian IX shortly after his death in 1906. The following year four artists were invited to compete for the commission. There was no discussion about the position of the statue. It would be erected on Christiansborg Riding Ground Complex as a pendant to the statue of King Frederick VII on the Palace Square.

Sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, the wife of composer Carl Nielsen, won the competition with her proposal for a new equestrian statue. In the proposal, the statue was shown on a high pedestal, on the sides of which were reliefs depicting a procession of the leading men of the day, including industrialist Carl Frederik Tietgen, politician Jakob Brønnum Scavenius Estrup and poets Jens Peter Jacobsen and Holger Drachmann. The reliefs were later axed, and the architect Andreas Clemmensen designed the pedestal that bears the horse today.

The sculptor sought throughout the country for the right horse to stand as a model, but found it in Hanover in Germany. This gave rise to a good deal of displeasure among Danish horse breeders.

The monument took a long time to complete, but in 1927, 21 years after the King's death, it was unveiled on the Riding Ground Complex.

<gallery class="center" widths="170" heights="140">

File:Christiansborg Kopenhamn Danmark, Johannes Jansson (3).jpg|alt=An equestrian statue|Equestrian statue of Christian IX. Not to be confused with the statue of Frederick VII on the Palace Square

File:Christiansborg Kopenhamn Danmark, Johannes Jansson (5).jpg|alt=Palace with horse-drawn cart outside|The Show Grounds at Christiansborg Palace dates back to 1745.

File:Christiansborg Slot Copenhagen 2014 02.jpg|alt=Pavilions and entrance to the palace|The main entrance to the Royal Stables with the two Rococo pavilions on each side of the Marble Bridge from 1739

File:Christiansborg Kopenhamn Danmark, Johannes Jansson.jpg|alt=Image of the palace from the road|Front of the palace, looking on to the square. The tower reaches a height of 106 metres.

File:Christiansborg Palace (aerial view).jpg|alt=Aerial view|Aerial view from the east

</gallery>

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

  • Christiansborg Palace
  • Folketinget (Parliament) (archived)
  • The Prime Minister's Office (archived)
  • The Monarchy. .
  • The Royal Stables (archived)
  • The Theatre Museum in the Court Theatre
  • Visiting Copenhagen (AOK). .
  • Copenhagen-Portal&nbsp;– Christiansborg Castle&nbsp;– The Danish Parliament
  • Tårnet (The Tower)