The Queen's Tapestries
A thousand Danish years in vivid colour.
Bob Collowan — CC BY-SA 4.0 · eimoberg from Changwon, South Korea — CC BY 2.0 · Jebulon — CC0 · Dietmar Rabich — CC BY-SA 4.0
Christiansborg is the only building in the world housing all three branches of power under one roof: the Danish parliament, the Supreme Court and the prime minister's office — alongside the royal reception rooms the king uses for state banquets — on the islet of Slotsholmen, where Bishop Absalon built Copenhagen's first castle (1167). The current palace (1928) is the third on the site after two fires — beneath its floor the ruins of Absalon's and the kings' castles survive in a walkable archaeological basement — and the reception rooms above dazzle with the Queen's Tapestries (the people's gift to Margrethe II at fifty: a thousand Danish years in vivid colour). Its tower is the city's tallest (106 metres) and climbed free by lift for the complete Copenhagen panorama — and the Royal Stables with their white horses and golden carriages complete a complex needing a full half-day for those wanting all of it.
A thousand Danish years in vivid colour.
The 1167 castle beneath the palace floor.
White horses and golden carriages.
Prins Jørgens Gård 1, 1218 Copenhagen
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The Ny Carlsberg GlyptotekThe Glyptotek is Copenhagen's most beautiful museum as a building before its col7 minutes walk4.7Yes — free English guided tours on set days (usually Sundays), and from the public gallery you attend actual sessions when it sits. Denmark prides itself on transparency: the parliament is an open building on a passport and security check, no more.