Sorgenfri Palace is a royal residence of the Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 monarch, located in the Lyngby-Taarbæk

Lyngby-Taarbæk

Lyngby-Taarbæk Kommune is a municipality in Region Hovedstaden near Copenhagen on the east coast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 39 km², and has a total population of 51,449 . Its mayor as of 2010 is Søren P...

 municipality in Greater Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

.

Today the palace is closed to the public but the palace gardens are accessible when the monarch is not in residence. Count Christian of Rosenborg

Count Christian of Rosenborg

Count Christian of Rosenborg, a former Danish and Icelandic prince now Grev Christian af Rosenborg , who was high in the line of hereditary succession to the throne of Denmark until the new right of females of the royal family to inherit the crown displaced his branch of the dynasty in favor of...

 (a younger son of Prince Knud) and his wife Countess Anne-Dorte presently reside in the palace.

History

Originally a country seat, Sorgenfri Palace was built for the Danish nobleman Count Carl Ahlefeldt in 1705-06. The palace first became a royal residence in 1730 after coming into the possession of the Danish Royal Family

Danish Royal Family

The Danish Royal Family includes the Queen of Denmark and her family. All members except the Queen hold the title of Prince/Princess of Denmark with the style of His/Her Royal Highness or His/Her Highness. The Queen is styled Her Majesty. The Queen and her siblings belong to the House of...

.

Crown Prince Frederick (later King Frederick V of Denmark) appointed the royal architect Lauritz de Thurah

Lauritz de Thurah

Laurids Lauridsen de Thurah, known as Lauritz de Thurah , was a Danish architect and architectural writer. He became the most important Danish architect of the late baroque period...

 (noted also for his remodelling and expansion of Hirschholm Palace

Hirschholm Palace

Hirschholm Palace, also known as Hørsholm Palace, was a royal palace located in present-day Hørsholm municipality just north of Copenhagen, Denmark...

) to construct a wing for the gentlemen of the Court.

Upon his ascension to the throne, Frederick gave the residence to his aunt Sophie Caroline

Sophie Caroline of Brandenburg-Kulmbach

- References :* http://runeberg.org/dbl/16/0174.html...

, Dowager Princess of East Frisia

East Frisia

East Frisia or Eastern Friesland is a coastal region in the northwest of the German federal state of Lower Saxony....

. The Princess instructed de Thurah to demolish the palace in 1756 to make way for a new palace.

Between 1791-94 Prince Frederick

Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark and Norway

Frederick , was a Hereditary Prince of Denmark and Norway. He was the surviving son of the second marriage of King Frederick V of Denmark with Juliana Maria of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel....

, brother to Christian VII of Denmark

Christian VII of Denmark

Christian VII was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1766 until his death. He was the son of Danish King Frederick V and his first consort Louisa, daughter of King George II of Great Britain....

, created the present neoclassical facade of the palace. The characteristic cupola

Cupola

In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....

 also dates from this time.

Sorgenfri was the preferred summer residence of King Christian X

Christian X of Denmark

Christian X was King of Denmark from 1912 to 1947 and the only King of Iceland between 1918 and 1944....

 and his wife Queen Alexandrine

Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Alexandrine Auguste of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the queen consort of King Christian X of Denmark.-Family:She was born a Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in the city of Schwerin...

. Both of Alexandrine's children Frederick

Frederick IX of Denmark

Frederick IX was King of Denmark from 20 April 1947 until his death on 14 January 1972....

 and Knud, were born there. Both Knud and his wife Caroline-Mathilde

Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark

Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark and Iceland was a crown princess of Denmark by marriage to Knud, Hereditary Prince of Denmark.-Birth:...

lived at Sorgenfri Palace until their respective deaths in 1976 and 1995.