Amalienborg Audio Guide

Amalienborg Palace: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Amalienborg

   Welcome to Amalienborg, in the heart of Copenhagen. Stand in the middle of its great octagonal square and turn slowly. Four palaces face one another around you, and in the center rides a bronze king on horseback. This is not a museum frozen in time. It is the residence of the Danish royal family, and the mansions around you have served as royal homes and for state functions ever since the royal family moved in during the late eighteenth century. What makes the place so striking is its symmetry. Amalienborg is a complex of four palaces, each with a matching Classical façade, arranged around an octagonal courtyard. Behind those calm exteriors, the interiors are Rococo. One of the great pleasures here is simply to look: four buildings that appear identical at first glance, each with its own story. Over the next few minutes we will look at how this square came to be, who the palaces were first built for, how one of them became a royal home after a fire, and how the square was drawn into a dramatic morning in 1940. Keep your eyes on the center, and let's begin.

2. 02

   A Square Planned for Nobles

   Here is a surprise: Amalienborg did not begin as a royal residence at all. The square was built during the reign of King Frederick the Fifth, who ruled from 1746 to 1766. He is the founder of both Amalienborg and the new city district around it, Frederiksstaden. The complex was constructed on the occasion of the three hundredth anniversary of the coronation of Christian the First, the first king of the House of Oldenborg. The plan was bold. The site was given to four prominent noblemen: Adam Gottlob Moltke, Christian Frederik Levetzau, Joachim Brockdorff and Severin Løvenskiold. In return, they committed themselves to building identical palaces, designed by the court architect Nicolai Eigtved. Think of it as a very grand set of town houses, with the king as master planner and the nobles as the first residents. Construction began around 1750, and the four mansions were finished about 1760. Eigtved died in 1754, and the work was carried forward by Lauritz de Thurah. Today the buildings are known by royal names rather than noble ones. Levetzau's mansion became Christian the Eighth's Palace, and Brockdorff's became Frederik the Eighth's Palace. The statue at the center is the work of the French sculptor Jacques Saly, and it shows Frederik the Fifth himself, the king who set the whole design in motion.

3. 03

   Before the Square: Sophie Amalienborg and the Move After the Fire

   The name Amalienborg is older than the square you are standing in. The first palace on this ground was Sophie Amalienborg, built between 1669 and 1673 as a pleasure palace for Queen Sophie Amalie, consort of King Frederik the Third. A pleasure palace was a private retreat, a place for a royal to escape official duties, rather than a home with grand state rooms. The land had been acquired by her father-in-law, Christian the Fourth, outside the old walled city of Copenhagen. When Sophie Amalie died in 1685, her son, King Christian the Fifth, inherited the palace. Its name lives on in the square today. The royal family's own move here came much later. In 1794 a fire struck Christiansborg Castle, the royal residence of the time. The royal family moved to Amalienborg and has used the mansions as residences and for state functions ever since. One of the four palaces shows this change clearly. Prince Frederik, the Heir Presumptive, bought Levetzau's mansion in 1794 and entrusted its modernization to the painter and architect Nicolai Abildgaard. So a house built for a nobleman became a prince's home, and the square slowly turned from a noble quarter into a royal one.

4. 04

   A Morning in April 1940

   Palaces are often thought of as places of ceremony, but Amalienborg once heard gunfire. On the morning of the ninth of April 1940, the day Germany invaded Denmark during the Second World War, the palace was the site of an hour-long firefight. On one side stood the Danish Royal Life Guards. On the other was the second battalion of the 308th Infantry Regiment of the German 198th Infantry Division. The fighting ended when King Christian the Tenth called for a ceasefire, sparing his country from destruction. It is a small moment in a vast war, but it ties this elegant square to a decision made by a king whose home it was. The Royal Life Guard is still part of the palace's life today. The guard is changed at noon, one of the best-known daily sights here. Watching it, remember that the soldiers are tied to the home of the royal family, not just to a tourist spectacle. Another moment of recent history was seen here as well. In January 2024, when Queen Margrethe the Second abdicated and King Frederik the Tenth took the throne, the eyes of the nation turned to Amalienborg.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you move on, take one more look at the square as a whole. Four identical façades, an octagon of open space, and a king on horseback at the center: it is a piece of city planning meant to be read from the middle. Try to find the Marble Church, with its great dome, rising beyond the palaces. It is one of the landmarks that frames Amalienborg's skyline. Then walk on and see how the setting unfolds. Close by lies Amaliehaven, a garden established in 1983 as a gift from the A P Møller Foundation. It has marble sculptures and a central fountain, and from there you can look across to the Copenhagen Opera House. As you wander, keep wondering about the four palaces. Which one belonged to which nobleman, and how did each change once royal families arrived? Every name on these façades is a clue to the story of a square that began as a plan for four noble families and became the royal heart of Copenhagen.