Welcome to Rosenborg Castle – the Rose Castle!
You are now standing in front of what is considered home of some of Denmarks greatest cultural treasures. Here, in this very castle, built by Christian IV dwells a great treasure; the Danish crown jewels and regalia! The castle was never really meant to be a permanent home of the Royal Family, but merely was intended as a pleasure castle. The Royal Family used the castle until early 18th century and a hundred years later it was converted into a historical museum with all its contents still intact for us to see today!
So let´s get started; enter through the big portals to the Great Hall! Behold; you are now facing the coronation throne of passed times, a very important relic indeed! Look, it is guarded by three spectacular silver lions. Walk along the hall and you will find another curiosity; the famous Rosenborg tapestries. They picture, as you can see, the victorious Christian V in the Scanian wars that took place in the 17th century and that rendered the Danish King the nickname Christian the Great in Denmark and Christian the Tyrant in Scania (Sweden).
So when you are done in the Great Hall, go check out the basement! Here you find the crowns and the treasuries of the Royals together with the crown jewels.
You cannot leave the castle without seeing the portraits! They picture Johan Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Mathilde. The story behind the portraits is that Caroline Mathilde, married to the insane King Christian VII, had a fatal love affair with the king's physician Johan Friedrich Struensee. As you can probably imagine, this love affair didn’t go neither unseen, nor unpunished by the rulers. The insane King Christian VII was too ill to govern, so Struensee led the country for almost two years, during which he also took over the Kings place in the Queens bed, as it seems. He was arrested and executed in 1772, and his poor Caroline Mathilde had to exile to northern Germany.
Jens Juel.is the original painter of the portrait of Struensee, but what you can see here is a copy from early 19th century. The portrait of Queen Caroline Mathilde is an original by the same artist from the 18th century. After all this royal splendor: If you haven’t got enough already, the Rosenborg Castle has a sister museum at Amalienborg Palace that is also covered in this tour.
Photo Rosenborg Castle lions by Dennis Jarvis is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
