In the spring of 2004 the Crown Prince and Crown Princess took up residence in the Chancellery House in the grounds of Fredensborg Palace. History of the Palace begins in the 1720’s and the Chancellery House was built in 1731.

Fredensborg Palace
Fredensborg Palace was built for Frederik IV around 1720, by the architect J.C. Krieger. The palace was extended throughout the early1700’s but the main structure of this masterpiece of Danish baroque architecture remains unchanged since its inauguration in 1722. The palace grounds and park, which are open to the public, are Denmark’s finest example of a baroque garden. The garden was established by Frederik IV and designed by J.C. Krieger, and this too was extended and altered during the 1700’s. The palace is used by the Royal Family to this day.

Frederik IV’s magnificent building was positioned exactly at the centre where  a number of straight paths intersect to form a star in the game hunting reserves. This is known as a “hunting star” (in Danish “jagtstjerne) because during a hunt it is permitted to shoot freely straight down the long paths which radiated out from the centre.

While the building was still under construction Denmark and Sweden negotiated a peace treaty which sealed the fate of the provinces of Skåneland which, since that time, have been provinces of Southern Sweden.

The peace agreement was signed in what would become Fredensborg Palace on 3 July 1720. It ended Denmark’s 11 year long participation in the Great Nordic War. To commemoration the end of war and the beginning of peace the as yet unfinished palace was named "Fredens Borg" – The Palace of Peace. (‘fred’ means peace in Danish, and ‘borg’ is a castle.) On 11 October 1722, on the King’s 51^st birthday, the palace was inaugurated with a huge banquet.

Kreiger’s Fredensborg
The architect appointed to design and construct the palace was Frederik IV’s Court Gardener at Rosenborg Palace, Johan Cornelius Krieger. King Frederik himself took an active part in the planning, and just as his great predecessor, Christian IV, who had built many beautiful buildings, he followed the entire construction process closely .

The man responsible for the actual construction of the Fredensborg was General Building Master J.C. Ernst, who already had responsibility for another of Frederik IV’s great projects – Frederiksberg Castle.  But the main responsibility was given to J.C. Krieger. The reason Frederik IV had appointed his Court Gardener to this position was not only Krieger’s ability as a builder but also that the King wanted a pleasure palace where the building and the garden were a unified. By placing the palace in the intersection of Christian V’s "hunting star" lines, the plan for the garden was also already in place, as it appeared to radiate out like a fan from the palace in eight separate and clearly-defined areas.

The riding-ring and stables on the eastern side of the octagonal courtyard dates back to Frederik IV.
The riding-ring is bordered on the northern side by the Palace Chapel with two wings .Adjacent to the palace was the Orangery, which was naturally equipped with huge glasshouse windows, and connected to the main building by a small secret passage, so that the Royal Family and the courtiers could walk to the chapel without getting their feet wet. On the other side of the church was the Courtiers Wing (Kavalerfløj) which contained dwellings for the Court’s clerks and others attached to the Royal Household. That section of the palace was built from 1724 – 1726. The style was similar to the Italian baroque style of the main building, but elements of both the stringent Dutch baroque style and rococo were introduced as well.

The Chapel, in the centre of the buildings, has a greatly exaggerated copper spire, a pilaster-decorated façade facing the riding-ring, and a heavily carved gable showing the bust of Frederik IV in relief. The bust was carved by Didrik Gerchen. To the east, the riding-ring is bordered buy a long stables building which was erected during the early 1720’s. Opposite this, to the west behind the octagonal courtyard, a long red wing was erected, also in the 1720’s. It is the Servant’s Wing and is the only red building at Fredensborg Palace. It has open half-timbers under a red tile roof.

Chancellery House
Krieger completed his work on the palace with the erection of the so-called “new Court Chancery building” in 1731. The low wing with the black-glazed tile, half-hipped roof is also known as The Chancellery House. It edged the riding-ring on the southern edge.  Until her death, the late Queen Mother, Queen Ingrid used this house as her private residence. The house has now been refurbished for The Crown Prince.

A major alteration of Krieger’s original building was made 10 years later. Christian VI’s favourite baroque architect was Laurids Thurah, who had built the tiny Hermitage and Hørsholm Palace, and had taken part in the construction of Christiansborg.  Thurah was appointed Master of the Royal Buildings in 1733 and was ennobled ‘de Thurah’ in 1740. In 1741 the energetic architect elevated the roof of main building of Fredensborg Palace. The alteration seemed quite modest, in that only the upper half roof, the mezzanine floor, was raised to full storey height. The slanted roof was replaced by a flat one, which is hidden by a low, and the typically Thurah-style sandstone balustrade. Thurah became famous for his unique balustrade design. The effect of the elevated storey is also that the cupola building seems smaller but perhaps more in harmony with the Italian baroque architectural style.

In 1753 Nicolai Eigtved again extended the palace by adding four symmetrically-positioned corner pavilions to the main building. The pavilions, with their separate copper pyramid-shaped roofs, are five window-breadths long,  but the windows are a little closer together than those in the main building. Eigtved’s additions meant that the character of the building was altered from being a square villa to a long-stretched palace. In this way the architect was able to meet the demands for a formal and princely dwelling. Villas and hermitages could be compact, but a pleasure palace should stretch out in length. The stroke of genius was even greater because Eigtved’s extensions were hardly visible. The unity of old and new has given Fredensborg a harmonic and well-balanced exterior fully compatible with the expression of the original building.

(The history of Fredensborg Palace and the Chancellery House is taken from “The Royal Family’s Dwellings over 1000 years” by the Director of Søllerød Museum, Niels Peter Stilling.
The book is published by Politiken’s Books  and was launched in August 2003.)