Baltic Cruise: Another day in Copenhagen–The Frederiksborg Palace

We ate breakfast aboard the cruise ship and then disembarked, took the train to our hotel, dropped off our bags without even checking in, and were on our way.  We trained (and bused) to the Frederiksborg’s Castle about 45 minutes north of Copenhagen.   “The Frederiksborg’s Castle sits on an island in the middle of a lake in the cute town of Hillerod.  This grandest castle in Scandinavia is often called the ‘Danish Versailles’.  Built from 1602 to 1620, Frederiksborg was the castle of Denmark’s King Christian IV.”   We walked on the path leading around the lake and crossed on the bridge to get inside.

Loved the clothes…

The Frederiksborg Castle Royal Chapel was indeed Royal.  It was astonishing, actually.  We entered on the 2nd floor and thus the view was even more incredible.  “Christian IV wanted to have the grandest royal chapel in Europe.  For 200 years the this chapel was the coronation place of Danish kings and is still used for royal and commoner weddings.”

In the front top corner of the chapel were hundreds of coats-of-arms lining the walls.  These belong to people who have received royal orders from the Danish crown.  While most are obscure princesses and dukes, a few interesting and more familiar names show up just past the organ… Nelson Mandela… Dwight D. Eisenhower… Winston Churchhill.

The highlight of the Frederiksborg Castle visit was truly unexpected.  We had walked down and around the sides of the chapel and upon exiting found ourselves in a small dark room filled with paintings.  I stared straight at a picture of the nativity and said to Chris – “I’ve seen this painting.  We know this painting.t”  He stared at it confused because of the halo on Mary’s head.  Then we started to look carefully at the other paintings in the room.  Most of them were familiar.  Carl Bloch’s originals.  An artist who we know because quite a few of his paintings have been adopted into the LDS gospel art sets.  Right then a museum guide turned the corner and still stunned I said, “Are these paintings originals?”  “Yes.  Originals of Carl Bloch…” and maybe seeing the look of surprise on my face he followed by saying, “Mormons like to come see these paintings.”   “Yes, we’re Mormon!”   Then he pulled from his pocket a ‘pass-along card’ that had been given to him from another castle visitor with one of the Carl Bloch paintings on the front and numbers of missionaries in the area on the back.  Then he took a minute to explain the paintings to us which were placed in order of the Savior’s life.  It was truly an amazing experience – perhaps because it was so unexpected.

The Audience Room where formal meetings took place.

The Great Hall was pretty incredible.  “The walls are lined with tapestries and royal portraits.  The remarkable wood-carved ceilings include panels illustrating various industries.    The elevated platform on the left was a gallery where musicians could play without getting in the way of the revelry.”