Frederiksborg Castle and Gardens - DK

A few weeks ago I went up to Frederiksborg Castle and Baroque Gardens located about an hour north of Copenhagen. It was a beautiful Sunday, an ideal day for strolling around to enjoy the outdoors and Denmark's fall foliage. And while the autumn colors are surely more spectacular in Maine (yes I am unapologetically biased :-) there just aren't the kind of castles in the US that you find all over Denmark and Europe in general. The closest thing to a castle I've seen in the US in Hearst Castle with my sister Anne a few years ago - amazing and worth checking out. In Denmark there is actually a part of the government called the Palaces and Properties Agency - so you would be correct in assuming there are castles and such all over the place here, comparitively speaking.

Frederiksborg Castle (according to the turist brochure I picked up ;-) was originally built by Frederik II in the late 1500s and now houses the Musuem of National History. I didn't bother going IN the castle, it was too nice a day to go inside to look at old plates and tapestries to be honest. But here is a nice photo of the castle and the moat around it.












The castle is also know for the gardens adjacent to it. These baroque gardens were laid out by Frederik IV in the early 1700s. The gardens feature sculpted shrubbery and water canals with fountains. The garden we see today however is not exactly the same. The original garden lasted about 40 years. Christian VII didn't spend the money to maintain it very long. But in 1993 a renovation and re-establishment process began that ended in 1996. Here is a nice view of the castle from one of the water canals in sepia - a nice effect I think.















The new garden contains 166 pyramid shaped yew trees, some of them visible in the below photo. Also visible is the pattern of the Danish crown.
















This is me of course inside the castle grounds, see the moat - the stuff of fairytales. I half expected Rapunzel to look out from one of the towers. My hair isn't long or golden so there is no way I'll get that part :-)















A last look at the castle from another direction, pretty amazing stuff. Most people here probably just walk by it everyday with out so much as a glance but I took my time to soak in the view....