On Saturday, Lisbeth and I decided to see some sights outside of Copenhagen. I wanted to see a castle I’d seen pictures of, but I couldn’t remember the name, so she picked out Fredensborg Palace because she’d never seen it before.
Fredensborg Palace was completed in 1726, and is home to the royal family during the autumn and spring. It is surrounded by a “slotshave”, or “castle garden”, which impressed me more than the palace itself. The garden has long straight paths that radiate out from the palace, and most of them are stunning canopies of folaige.
The castle garden is on the Eastern shore of Lake Esrum — Denmark’s second largest lake. (Denmark has other huge bodies of inland water, but they are fjords, although the definition of ‘fjord’ differs by language.) The main thing that impressed me about the lake was how empty it was — there were far fewer boats than I would have expected.
There is an elaborate sculpture garden within in the castle garden, with 70 statues. Oddly, all the statues are of Norwegian and Faroese workers and fishermen, and no Danes are represented. The name of the sculpture garden is “Nordmandsdalen”, which translates to “Norwegian Valley”. It turns out that the sculptures were all re-done in the 1980s, so it’s not surprising that they’re in pretty good shape.
I was a bit under-whelmed by the palace itself. It’s not much to look at, especially from the front (the first picture above). It’s more impressive from the back, which faces the castle garden (the latter two pictures above).
So Fredensborg was nice, but on the way back we accidentally stumbled upon Frederiksborg Palace. This was great, both because it was the one I wanted to see in the first place, and because accidentally discovering castles is a new experience for this American.
Parts of Frederiksborg Palace date back to 1560, but the majority of it was built between 1600 and 1620. Today it houses the Museum of Natural History. The castle sits on an three islands in the middle of a lake, and is the only Renaissance palace in Scandinavia.
The castle grounds include an immaculately maintained baroque garden that is stunning by itself, but even better with a castle in the background.
What impresses me about your photos is the total desolation. Were these sites in America, there would be crowds clamoring to get in. There would be cotton candy and sno-cone venders, mariachi bands and der mayor of der town giving a speech. Were you absolutely the only one(s) there?
It’s amazing — this was only a month ago, but that was before tourist season really got into full swing. Just yesterday I saw a picture of Fredensborg palace, and it was SWARMING with tourists. And in Copenhagen it’s just as dramatic. Remember that canal boat tour we went on? Those boats seem to go by once every thirty seconds right now.