Christiansborg
Christiansborg Palace [ kʀesdjansˈbɔːʔʀ ] (Danish Christiansborg Slot ) is located on the island of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen and is home to the heads of the three powers of the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the only representative building in the world that unites the highest representatives of the executive , legislative and judicial branches under one roof: In addition to the rooms of the Folketing Parliament, there is the Supreme Court , a seat of the Prime Minister and royal reception rooms in the palace. The current building was built between 1906 and 1937.
history
Absalon's Castle and Copenhagen Castle
Archbishop Absalon , who is considered the founder of Copenhagen, built a castle on today's castle island around 1167 . The castle came into the possession of the Danish crown under Waldemar the Great . The fortification was subjected to several attacks, including the Rügener Wends . The complex, which was expanded several times, was razed by his opponents in the 14th century after the defeat of King Waldemar IV Atterdag in the war against the Hanseatic League . Queen Philippa had it armed with cannons for the naval battle of Copenhagen (1428) . The Copenhagen Castle (Københavns slot), a polygonal castle complex with a moat, which was expanded to become a royal residence, was later built on the foundation walls . The Blue Tower was used as a prison.
The Copenhagen Mint was established in the Copenhagen Castle. This is where the Corona Danica , a new type of coin Christian IV of Denmark and Norway was minted.
The first Christiansborg Palace
In 1736 King Christian VI. build the first Christiansborg Palace as an absolutist representative building by the German architect Elias David Häusser . A four-winged Rococo palace was built with a riding arena, court theater (which still exist today) and a castle church. The enormous construction costs amounted to approximately two thirds of the annual income of the kingdom. Magnificent court life unfolded in the castle for half a century.
On the afternoon of February 26, 1794, a fire broke out in the main wing, presumably due to a tiled stove, during which the castle, including the castle church and the royal music library, burned out into the early hours of the following day. The stables, from where the fire was fought with a fire engine, survived the disaster.
The second Christiansborg Palace
The second Christiansborg Palace was built in the years 1806–1828 in the classicism style by the architect Christian Frederik Hansen (1756–1845) - a friend of Schinkel's . This castle formed the backdrop for the country's transition from absolutism to parliamentarianism . In March 1848 a crowd gathered outside Christianborg and demanded a democratic constitution. The king gave some of his apartments to the Reichstag, which began its work in January 1850 in the same wing where the Folketing Hall is today. The Second Christiansborg burned down on October 3, 1884, again probably because of a stove fire. The Danish writer and journalist Herman Bang wrote a report about this fire, which at the time attracted Europe-wide attention. In contrast to the previous building, the building was equipped with fire protection walls, hydrants and other devices, but the tangle of exhaust pipes and shafts through which the flames spread was hardly familiar to the extinguishers. Only the classicist castle church, completed in 1826, survived the fire.
The unorganized extinguishing work was the incentive for the Dane Sophus Falck to set up the Falck rescue service .
The third Christiansborg Palace
The rebuilding of the castle has been the subject of long and controversial debate. The purpose of a castle has been questioned by many under the changed political circumstances. Thorvald Jørgensen (1867–1946), who was royal building inspector from 1911 to 1938 , finally emerged from an architectural competition . Its original design has undergone many changes. The result visible today has never achieved any popularity worth mentioning. The neo-baroque design language and the unfortunate choice of materials are still criticized today.
The main construction phase extended from 1907 to 1928, the last work could not be completed until 1937. In 1918 the Danish parliament ( Folketing ) took its seat in the palace, in 1919 the Supreme Court followed , and in 1928 the royal state rooms were opened.
In 1992 another severe fire devastated the castle church. It could only be reopened in 1997 after extensive restoration work.
Building
1 : castle; 2 : king portal; 3 : Palace Square; 4 : courtyard of honor; 5 : entrance to the Folketing; 6 : Reichstag court; 7 : Court theater / theater museum; 8 : stables and carriage museum; 9 : marble bridge; 10 : riding arena; 11 : riding arena; 12 : Thorvaldsen Museum; 13 : entrance to the Supreme Court; 14 : Queen Portal, entrance to the Royal Representation Rooms; 15 : Castle Church; 16 : Prinz-Jørgen-Hof
The three-wing main building is accessed by three portals. The queen portal on the north wing leads to the royal representation rooms, while the portal on the south wing forms the entrance to the Folketing. The Königsportal on the Schlossplatz looks like a main entrance, in fact you only get to the underground exhibition of the medieval foundation walls.
The castle tower measures 106 meters and towers over the tower of Copenhagen City Hall by half a meter. It was built using a frame construction and is one of the oldest reinforced concrete structures in the country.
The sandstone facades of the Prinz-Jørgen-Hof come from the neo-classical predecessor of the castle. Otherwise field stones were used for the basement and ground floor, which were collected from over 700 Danish parishes. The only roughly hewn stones give the building an almost castle-like character, but on closer inspection they offer a fascinating play of colors. The other parts of the facade are clad with granite . Granite is largely insensitive to weather influences, but is hardly suitable for finer decors. Most of the ornaments were made by the sculptor Anders Bundgaard . Granite masks of important men in Danish history such as Absalon , Tycho Brahe , NFS Grundtvig , Blicher , Tietgen and Enrico Dalgas are located above the windows on the first floor . The fathers of the Danish Basic Law are gathered around the entrance to Parliament. Four atlases above this entrance seem to bear the weight of the balcony above. Their faces, contorted with pain, caused mockery and annoyance at the unveiling. Donations were raised to be turned down. But they still suffer today, and the vernacular replaced the original title of the group of figures (“The Daily Trouble”) with terms such as “Gate of Terror” or “Head, Ear, Tooth and Stomach Pain”.
Royal representation rooms
The royal state rooms are located on the ground floor and first floor of the north wing of the palace. They serve official occasions such as receptions, state banquets, audiences and meetings with the State Council. From the queen's portal, which serves as the main entrance to the representative rooms, and the anteroom of the palace guard, the king's stairs lead to the audience room and the State Council chamber. These are the only royal reception rooms that are not open to the public. The first floor houses the throne room, knight's hall, dining room, library and Alexander hall. Some of the furnishings in the interior come from the previous buildings, provided they survived the fires. Leading Danish artists designed the decorations, works of art, paintings and tapestries, including Nicolai Abildgaard , Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg , Bjørn Nørgaard , Joakim Frederik Skovgaard , Bertel Thorvaldsen and Laurits Tuxen .
The oval-shaped throne room in the middle of the main wing gives access to the balcony from which the Danish monarchs are proclaimed. The throne room is used for ambassador receptions and the traditional New Year's Eve celebrations. Christian Frederik Hansen made the two thrones for the previous building. The great hall is the former knight's hall. It is 40 meters long and 10 meters high, making it the largest room that can accommodate 400 guests. State receptions and gala dinners take place here. In the large hall with a surrounding balustrade , 17 colorful woven tapestry tapestries by Nørgaard from 1999 can be seen, which depict the history of Denmark from the Viking Age to the present on around 200 m². The stucco work and the large ceiling painting was done by Kræsten Iversen . The black and white marble floor was recycled from the royal library. The Alexander Hall got its name from a large marble frieze showing the triumphal procession of Alexander the Great in Babylon by Bertel Thorvaldsen in 1829. The entire frieze was reconstructed based on the preserved parts and attached here. The hall is used for smaller receptions and official dinners.
Court theater
In the first palace, Christian VI. Due to its pietistic character, no theater was planned, so Christian VII had performances in the dining room. The court theater has been on the first floor since 1767, above the stables. Nicolas-Henri Jardin designed the room, which was rebuilt in the Biedermeier style in 1842 . The museum was founded in 1912 by a private group of theater lovers. Under Robert Neiiendam (1880-1966), who headed the theater museum at the court theater, the museum was transferred to the old court theater in 1922. The museum documents the history of professional theater through the collection of pictures, letters, costumes, props and models of theater buildings. The auditorium is used for various cultural events. A Danish talk show will be broadcast live from the court theater.
Castle Church
The classicistic, towerless castle church was built as a separate structure in the northern castle district and connected to the castle by a low connecting structure. It is used by the royal family for worship purposes, especially for baptisms, confirmations and laying out, but also for worship during the opening of parliament. The core of the building goes back to the previous church, which was built from 1738 to 1742 in the Rococo style. For the reconstruction from 1813 to 1826, Christian Frederik Hansen used the masonry and foundations that were still preserved after the fire, if possible. A long house was built on a rectangular floor plan based on Roman models and is dominated by a large central dome. A portico with four Ionic columns, architraves and a flat triangular gable serves as the main entrance . A circumferential frieze divides the outer walls into two levels with tall rectangular windows. In the middle of the long sides there is a large semicircular window. The interior was designed by the architect Nicolai Eigtved like a Roman temple. Galleries with balusters run over the arcades on the long sides , which are structured by fluted pilasters , the Corinthian capitals of which reach up to a protruding surrounding cornice . As with the Roman pantheon , the inside of the dome is coffered . The entrance area is dominated by two Corinthian free columns that flank the royal box. Two identical columns in the west delimit the semicircular altar niche. The church escaped the palace fire of 1884, but was badly damaged by a fire in 1992. In 1997 it was re-opened. The Europa Nostra Prize was awarded for the successful reconstruction .
Organ of the castle church
The organ of the castle church was built in 1829 by the organ builders Marcussen and Reuter . The organ case (6.4 m high, 6.0 m wide, 3.5 m deep) and the prospectus were designed by the architect Christian Frederik Hansen . The instrument has 38 registers (1,959 pipes) on three manuals and pedal and is housed in the upper gallery in the semicircular arched field above the royal box. One register is vacant. The playing and register actions are mechanical. The substation is swellable. The wind turbine is housed in a room behind the organ. It comprises eight bellows that can be operated mechanically (step bellows) as well as electrically. The disposition is as follows:
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- Pair : I / II, III / II
Trivia
The castle is colloquially called Borgen ( Eng. 'Castle'). This is also the eponymous title of the Danish political television series Borgen - Dangerous Ropes .
literature
- Kristian Hvidt: Christiansborg Slot. Udgivet af Folketingets Præsidium . Arnold Busck, Copenhagen 1975.
- Hakon Lund: København, for and now - and for all. Bind 1: Slotsholmen . Palle Fogtda, København 1987.
- Svend Thorsen: Danmarks Folketing. About the house and history . JH Schultz, Copenhagen 1961.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut Kahnt: The great coin lexicon from A to Z. Regenstauf 2005, p. 78.
- ↑ October 3, 1884 , in the Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , No. 42, October 18, 1884, p. 433, accessed on January 1, 2013
- ^ PM History (Ed.): 1884 Fire in the seat of government . tape 12/2016 , p. 82-83 .
- ^ Thorsen, p. 46
- ↑ Lund, p. 173
- ↑ teatermuseet.dk: More about the Court Theater and the Theater Museum , accessed March 4, 2019.
- ↑ danmarkskirker.natmus.dk: Christiansborg Slotkirke (Danish), pp. 146, 246, 248, accessed on March 5, 2019 (PDF).
- ↑ danmarkskirker.natmus.dk: Christiansborg Slotkirke (Danish), pp. 246–248, accessed on March 5, 2019 (PDF).
- ↑ Drachmann Arkitekter: Christianborg Slotskirke København (Danish), accessed on March 5, 2019.
- ↑ Information on organ on the website of the organ building company; accessed on March 5, 2019.
Web links
Coordinates: 55 ° 40 ′ 33 ″ N , 12 ° 34 ′ 44 ″ E