Frederiksborg Castle

Spread across three small islands in a lake at Hillerød, north of Copenhagen, Frederiksborg is the largest Renaissance castle complex in Scandinavia. Christian IV built it in the first decades of the 17th century on the site of an older castle bought by his father, Frederik II, whose name it still carries.

Red brick, sandstone reliefs and copper-clad spires are mirrored in the surrounding water, while formal Baroque gardens climb the hillside opposite in a geometry of clipped hedges, cascades and the royal monogram traced in box.

What it is famous for

For more than a century Frederiksborg was the coronation church of the Danish kings: monarch after monarch was anointed in its richly decorated chapel. After a devastating fire in 1859 gutted much of the castle, it was rebuilt with the help of the brewer J. C. Jacobsen, founder of Carlsberg, who in 1878 established inside it the Museum of National History.

Today that museum tells the story of Denmark through one of the finest collections of portraits and historical paintings in the country — kings, scientists, writers and ordinary citizens — hung through more than seventy rooms, from Renaissance interiors to a modern portrait gallery.

Good to know

The gardens are open to the public and free to walk, and the lake can be crossed by a small ferry in season. Hillerød is the northern terminus of Copenhagen's S-train network, about 40 minutes from the city centre, and the castle is a signposted walk or short bus ride from the station.