Marselisborg Castle

Marselisborg Castle, rear view from Mindeparken and Århus Bay

Marselisborg Castle ( Danish Marselisborg Slot ) has been a summer residence of the Danish Queen Margrethe II and her husband Prince Henrik of Denmark since 1967 .

The castle is located at Kongevej No. 100 ( German Königsweg ) south of Aarhus and at the northern end of the Marselisborg Forest ( Danish Marselisborgskov ) at Mindeparken ( German Memorial Park ), which extends to the coast of the Aarhus Bugt and is used as a recreation area for the residents of the City is very popular in the warm months of the year.

history

Marselisborg was a mansion ( Danish herregård ) near Aarhus. The history of the manor can be traced back to the 16th century under the name Havreballegård. Today the Marselisborg High School is located here on Marselis Boulevard in Aarhus. The manor has nothing directly to do with the royal Marselisborg Castle, which was built by the Danish architect Hack Kampmann between 1899 and 1902.

The castle was a wedding gift from the Danish people ( Danish folkets bryllupsgave ) to Prince Christian and Princess Alexandrine. The later royal couple King Christian X. and Queen Alexandrine established the tradition of using the palace as a summer residence. It is located on the site of the former Havreballegård.

The entire land belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark as state property and is available for use by the currently ruling King of Denmark. After the death of Queen Alexandrine in 1952, King Frederik IX took over . the lock. Today's Queen Margrethe II received Marselisborg Castle as a wedding present from her father Frederik IX in 1967. after extensive renovation and modernization. Since then, the Queen and her Prince Consort Henrik have been using the palace as a summer residence with the royal family, as well as for the Easter and Christmas holidays.

In 1661 the heavily indebted King Frederik III. to his creditor Gabriel Marselis , a Dutch merchant, who owned Havreballegård in Jutland, which belonged to the Danish crown. Two of Marselis' sons moved to Denmark and settled in the Aarhus area. The son Constantin (de) Marselis (1647 - 1699) inherited Havreballegård, which he renamed Constantinsborg until he was elevated to Danish feudal baron in 1680, the newly established feudal baron now being called Marsillesborg, later Marselisborg. He died childless and consequently Marsillesborg reverted to the Crown; King Christian V enfeoffed his natural son Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve (1678-1719) with the baron. In the following centuries the owners changed several times.

The city of Aarhus bought the Marselisborg property in 1896. In 1898, part of the park was given to the newly wed royal couple Prince Christian (X) and Princess Alexandrine as a wedding present from the Jutlanders . As part of the gift, Hack Kampmann designed and built Marselisborg Castle.

Emergence

Marselisborg Castle was a gift from the people in the sense that it was based on individual economic possibilities and built on the land of the Aarhus municipality. Several Jutland cities and Danish companies were involved in the project, especially when it came to equipping and furnishing the castle. The towns of Horsens , Vejle , Randers , Aalborg and Thisted deserve special mention . The collection of donations began in the autumn of 1897, organized by Stiftungsamtmann ( Danish stiftamtmand ) Dreyer, Baron J. Rosenkrantz from Sophiendal and landowner Chr. Neergaard from Aakjær . On May 20, 1898, the Aarhus municipality made ten hectares of land available for the Prince's Palace. Then the architect Hack Kampmann worked together with the state engineer Charles Ambt from Copenhagen on the design of the castle. The total budget was 150,000 Danish kroner .

The building was completed on June 7, 1902 and was given to Crown Prince Christian and his bride Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as a wedding gift from the Danish people. Shortly thereafter, the prince suggested not to cultivate the 30 hectares of land in front of the castle up to near Aarhus Bay, as it would ruin the view. On June 11, 1902, the Aarhus City Council approved this request and a ten-year contract was signed, stating that the prince had to pay a rent of 40 kroner per hectare. At the same time he was given a right of first refusal on the entire area, which later became Mindeparken. By purchasing land between 1913 and 1917, King Christian X enlarged the palace park and the garden area behind it to an area of 23.5 hectares.

Castle Park

Sculpture Torso of Prince Henrik in the park of Marselisborg Castle

The approximately 13 hectare castle park was laid out by the landscape architect L. Christian Diedrichsen in the traditional English style with large lawns, surrounded by trees, small water basins and slopes planted with bushes. A number of sculptures and works of art are displayed in the park. There is a rose and herb garden.

The castle is not open to the public, but the castle park can be entered by the population when the royal family is not present. A daily change of guard of the Royal Bodyguard ( Den Kongelige Livgarde ) takes place at noon at 12 noon when the Queen is present. The main entrance is the only access to the park during this time.

Various sculptures are set up in the castle park:

Sculptures Torso , Åbent hjerte ( German open heart ) and Elskende par ( German pair of lovers ) by Prince Henrik
Fountain by the sculptor Jens-Flemming Sørensen
Grand Couple by the French sculptor Étienne-Martin
Sculpture by the sculptor Sonja Ferlov Mancoba
Maltese bow , a gift from Malta's Prime Minister Dom Mintoff
Top of a building from 1918 in Copenhagen's southern harbor
Flower bowl that comes from Skagen
Granite sculpture Tre løver og ni hjerter ( German three lions and nine hearts ) by Claus Ørntoft

Individual evidence

↑ Homepage Dansk Kongehuset: (June 27, 2016) Residensforlæggelse til Marselisborg Slot , (Danish), accessed on July 11, 2016

↑ ^a ^b Homepage Dansk Kongehuset: Marselisborg Palace (English), accessed on May 27, 2018

↑ Aarhus City Museum: Marselisborg, prince's residence in Jutland (Danish), based on an exhibition under the same name from November 9, 2002 to May 11, 2003, not accessible, login with password required ( Memento des original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on May 9, 2016 @1@ 2