Rosenborg
Castle is located a short distance west from Nyhavn - the most popular tourist
destination of Copenhagen. The castle was built as a pleasure palace by
Christian IV at the beginning of the 1600s and quickly became the king’s
favorite residence. With his many building projects, lost wars, and colorful
personality, the king made a big mark on Danish history.
Christian IV
ruled the country together with the Privy Council, but absolutism was
introduced with his son Frederik III in 1660. Many of the furnishings in the
castle reflect the pomp and circumstance of the absolute monarchy.
From the
1700s Rosenborg was no longer used as a residence, but became the place where
the kings placed their oldest, finest and rarest objects. Here the king’s
guests could see the wealth and status of the Danish-Norwegian kingdom in
Europe. Rosenborg opened to the public as a museum in 1838.
The exhibition
is structured as a journey in time along the royal lineage. The Great Hall and
the tower rooms on the second floor are not connected to a particular king.
This is also true of the treasury, which displays the king’s lavish collection
of valuables, often required as gifts from foreign rulers or as spoils of war.
At Rosenborg
Castle the royal lineage ends with Frederik VII, but the royal journey through
time continues at Amalienborg Palace, where the private rooms of the kings and
queens are exhibited up until Frederik IX, who died in 1972.
More at: http://www.kongernessamling.dk/en/rosenborg/
