Charlottenlund Palace

Charlottenlund Palace, in Charlottenlund, Denmark, is a former summer residence of the Danish royal family built under the authority of the Kingdom of Denmark. The principal building takes its form from the early 18th century and was completed in 1733 in a Baroque manner, after which it served successive royal occupants and later public and scientific institutions, making it an enduring site of royal, civic, and cultural importance.

The site began its recorded life in 1622 when King Christian IV laid out a deer park to replace Rosenborg Deer Park. In 1663 King Frederick III exchanged the fenced grounds to a courtier, who established an inn there; the estate later passed into the hands of Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve and acquired the name Gyldenlund. The crown recovered the property in a later exchange, and an avenue connecting the estate with Jægersborg was created in 1706 by Christian V.

In 1730 Crown Prince Christian gave the estate to his sister, Princess Charlotte Amalie, and the modest house then standing was replaced by a new Baroque palace finished in 1733. Much of the stone and other building material for that work came from the dismantling of Copenhagen Castle. The palace and nearby grounds became established as a royal residence with formal gardens laid out in the period style.

During the 1800s the palace served for many years as the home of Louise Charlotte and Prince William of Hesse-Kassel, while the surrounding park remained open and popular with the public for excursions and summer music. In 1869 the future King Frederick VIII and his wife took up residence there; their sons Christian, later Christian X of Denmark, was born in 1870, and Haakon VII of Norway was born in 1872 at the palace. A substantial rebuilding and enlargement was carried out in 1880–81, adapting the appearance of the house and creating a large central reception hall beneath a newly added dome.

Queen dowager Louise lived at the palace until her death in 1926 and was the last member of the royal family to make it a permanent home. The building received protected status in the early 20th century, and the royal household ceased official use of the property in 1935. That same year the Danish Biological Station, an institute founded in 1889, moved into the premises; the institute later became the Danish Fishery Survey and in its final years was known as DTU Aqua.

In 1938 a marble obelisk brought from Greenland, funded by the Danish and Icelandic states, was set in the west garden in honour of Frederick VIII and Queen Louise. The following year the national aquarium opened at the garden entrance and remained there until a new aquarium opened in 2013. In 2001 the institute and grounds became part of the Technical University of Denmark as DTU Aqua. When DTU Aqua relocated in 2017 management of the palace and park passed to a private company, which adapted the Knights’ Hall into a museum space displaying original interiors and paintings. From 2019 the palace has been occupied by companies and used for cultural events, with the Great Hall (Kongelig Salon, meaning Royal Salon) employed for occasional classical concerts. In 2022 reports raised the possibility of the property being offered for sale amid an administrative dispute, but as of August 2023 the site remained open to the public.