Copenhagen, Part the Second -- In Which I Admire Sparkly Things

This is my second story about my stay in Copenhagen. The first one, about my trip to Tivoli, is posted here, and this is the second one, about my visit to Rosenborg Castle. Both have a lot of photos, so I apologize if the load time is long!


Christian IV built Rosenborg Slot (Castle) between 1606 and 1624. Three kings lived there, until Friedrich IV built Friedrich Slot around 1710. Rosenborg then became a ceremonial location, the Skatkammer (treasury), and—in 1838—a museum of contemporary history open to the public! Before the castle opened, I took photographs of some of the sculptures in the adjacent Kongens Have (King’s Garden). Maybe you can tell the weather was regnerisch (rainy) again.

It was one of the more interesting royal residences I’ve toured, probably because the styles ranged from 17th-century hunting lodge through roccocco villa to Empire mansion. The free map they offer helpfully includes a list of the Danish kings and queens and gives a few details about each room. I was curious about the cryptic description of “the king’s bloody clothing” in Christian IV’s bedroom, so I asked the guard standing in the doorway. (Almost everyone in Copenhagen speaks fair to good English, and they don’t mind using it, when it’s evident you know about 3 words of Danish.) He explained that the king had gone to war against Sweden, and when a cannonball hit the deck of the ship where he was standing, it blew to pieces, taking out the king’s right eye. Hence the rips and blood stains on the various objects of clothing in the glass display case. The guard went on to say that Christian lived in much pain for the last three years of his life, because the physicians didn’t have much medicine that actually worked. He showed us the “everyday” crown with a green silk patch that would have hung over the hole in Christian’s face; and also the pair of earrings made of gold hands holding two pieces of schrapnel pulled from the king's eye socket. Apparently the queen actually wore them—but they were so small that I wouldn’t have seen them otherwise. I’m glad I asked!

My roommate was particularly interested in the wax busts (I forget who this is). On the top floor was the Knight’s Hall, with 12 beautiful, hand-made tapestries. I overheard a guide telling a group of East Asian tourists that Denmark had fought 7 wars with Sweden, and lost 6 1/2 of them. The tapestries were to celebrate the 1/2 war they won! I didn’t take any pictures of those, but these are the thrones. 

I was particularly interested in the treasury: so many beautiful things! I felt like I ought to judge the royals for expecting such opulence (and paying for it with taxes on the common people), but everything was just so pretty that I could hardly hold their wanting such objects against them.  Although I don’t suppose they actually used or wore the half of what I saw—at least that was my understanding after seeing a similar collection in Dresden (the Grüne Gewolbe). As with the pantomimes at Tivoli, I just wanted to look and look and look.  After seeing the size of the gems on this crown, and having just gotten out of a conference on medical objects and museums, I wondered where premodern Europeans got the precious metals and jewels they used for all this finery. A few semi-useful Google searches later, I was left with “Asia,” “Africa,” and “the New World.” Ah well. At least no blood must be shed or peoples brutalized or oppressed to bring you these (blurry) images.




p.s.—From Copenhagen to Dortmund I took 1 cab, 2 trains, 1 ferry, and 1 U-Bahn.