Day 3: Frederiksborg Castle

Frederiksborg Castle (picture 1 on the collage above) and the museum in its interior is located in a small town one hour away from Copenhagen, Hillerød. The clastle was originally a manor house called Hillerødsholm, which belonged to a noble man and his wife. In 1560, the king Frederik II acquired the place and changed its name to Frederiksborg. Christian IV (the same guy who lived in Rosenborg Castle, from one of the previous posts) was born at Frederiksborg in 1577 and was deeply attached to the castle.

According to a historical information on the museum's website, "the architecture of Frederiksborg Castle is inspired by the French and Dutch Renaissance styles. (...) The style has also been called the “Christian VI style” because his buildings are characterized by sumptuous ornamentation with bands of sandstone between red brickwork, window triangles with figure heads, swung gables and many spires on copper-clad roofs."

There is a chapel (picture 21 from left to right on the collage above) inside the castle, built in 1617, and one of the few preserved interiors with the original ornamentation from the time of Christian IV. Besides monarchy times artfacts, there's a modern collection that can be seen in the museum, established in 1993. One of the pieces found in the place are a self-portrait of danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, dated from 1975 (picture 13 from left to right on the second collage), as the first official portrait of Crown Princess Mary (picture 13 from left to right on the collage above), painted in 2006.

There was also a special exhibition going on, a result of a Portrait prize where contemporary artists from Denmark and other nordic countries could participate recently (pictures 1, 15 and 16 on the second collage are one of the various pieces that were exposed). The dress was one of my fav pieces.


It took three hours to see the entire interior of the castle, and there was still the outdoors and the garden to be explored. Pretty tiring, but so worth it!