The Baroque Gardens – Man’s power over nature
The Baroque Gardens is a strict symmetrical design with terraces, cascades, formed trees and royal monograms. The romantic landscape gardens have free-growing wood scrapes, large grass areas, lakes, streams and meandering paths. Frederiksborg Castle Gardens is a fantastic experience all year – whether you are a garden nerd or like to enjoy the beautiful recreational areas.
The Baroque Gardens are the most prominent and conspicuous part of Frederiksborg Castle Gardens and also the ones that many people associate with the castle. Frederik IV established it in the 1720s with Johan Cornelius Krieger as the landscape designer. The Baroque Gardens are characterised as magnificent within the landscape design.
The garden is established on four terraces which decline towards Castle Lake. The strict lines and ruler-straight hedges, the nicely cut grass-covered slopes and the formed bushes and box trees demonstrate how man’s control of nature was the ideal in the 18th century.
In the continuous central axis, water cascades splash level for level before ending in Castle Lake. At the top, you find Runde Dam (the Round Pond). There are formed shrubberies and fountains on the two middle terraces, and the four royal monograms nicely developed box trees on the lower level.
In the Baroque Gardens, several decorative zinc sculptures originate from Frederiksborg Castle and other castles and gardens. They are copies of original sculptures made of sandstone and were created in the 19th century. Find a map of the Baroque Gardens.
Royal monograms tell us a story.
At the bottom level, the parterre, you find four royal monograms, one for each regent who has played a role in the gardens’ history.
- Frederik IV – who landscaped the Baroque Gardens in the 1720s
- Christian VI and Frederik V – who ruled while the garden existed
- Margrethe II – who opened the restored Baroque Gardens in 1996, after three years of restoration
No less than 65,000 box trees were used to form the monograms. In the narrow beds around the seals are 166 pyramid-shaped yew trees with an underplanting of historical flowers and bulbous plants. When the Baroque Gardens were planned, tulips were an extremely precious and popular bulbous plant. The price of one tulip bulb corresponded to the price of a house in the high-class areas of Amsterdam!
Tips, tricks and Optical Illusions
Landscape architects worked competently and consciously with optical illusions, so the gardens seemed larger. In several places in the Baroque Gardens, the paths are narrow, so they seem longer from certain angles. You can also get a good impression of the effects by standing at the top of the cascade. From here, the grass-covered slopes narrow towards the pond called Runde Dam (the Round Pond) and create an illusion in terms of distance.
Get the story through a mobile guide.
If you want to know more about the history of the Baroque Gardens while walking around, you can make use of the gardens’ mobile guide. In the Baroque Gardens, you find six signs with a telephone number which you can call to get the background about the history, design and planting.
Get a guided tour of the Baroque Gardens.
It is also possible to order a tour of the Baroque Gardens with a professional guide from the Friends of the Baroque Gardens (Barokhavens Venner). Duration is approx. One hour and 15 minutes. The tour can be in Danish, English, German, Spanish or French. Order a time for groups by writing to slotshave@slke.dk
The Landscape Gardens – the romantic notion of free nature
In Indelukket (the Enclosure) and Lille Dyrehave (the Little Deer Park), you can see the romantic Landscape Gardens, which became fashionable in the 19th century. Here, they practised free nature as an ideal for landscape gardening. Frederik VII laid out the charming sections of the castle gardens around the small castle called Badstueslot (the Bath House Castle), with meandering paths, canals and small lakes, shrubbery and trees.
On a small island in Ødammen (the Ødam Pond), you find Louise’s Island, where Frederik VII built a miniature version of a Norwegian manor as a place for him and the Queen (Louise Christine Rasmussen also known as Countess Danner).
The Landscape Gardens offers excellent nature experiences for the whole family. In May, you can study the rich birdlife around the canals, filled with goslings and ducklings. Listen to the nightingales singing late in the evening. This idyllic place is perfect for a romantic stroll with your chosen one. The large open lawns invite for a picnic. You can also have lunch at Café Havehuset or the restaurant Spisestedet Leonora. Find a map of the Landscape Gardens.
Café Havehuset
Cafe Havehuset is the castle gardens’ idyllic café where they have indoor and outdoor service with food and beverages. On the patio, you will find a large model of the Baroque Gardens and a poster presentation of the history of the gardens. Here, you also see the public toilets of the Castle Gardens.
Practical information
- Opening hours - the Baroque Gardens: Open all year round from 10:00 a.m. to sunset, however, not later than 9:00 p.m.
- Opening hours – the other Castle Gardens: Open 24/7, all year.
- Admission: Free admission to the Baroque Gardens and the other Castle Gardens
- Toilets: The toilets of the Castle Gardens are located by the café – Café Havehuset
- Parking: Parking subject to payment is found at Møntportvejen. There are free parking spaces at Batzkes Bakke and in the northern end of the castle park, with a drive from Holmegårdvej.
- Further information: The cascade and the fountain are in service from 1 May until and including the children’s autumn holiday in week 42. The waterfall, as well as the fountain, are active daily between 10:00 a.m. and 9 p.m. There is a pause of 15 minutes when the chimes strike the hour.
