The garden canals
A rowing boat can be hired to go into them in summer.
Jakub Hałun — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jakub Hałun — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Guillaume Baviere from Uppsala, Sweden — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Thomas Dahlstrøm Nielsen — CC BY-SA 4.0
An Italianate baroque palace on a hill in western Copenhagen, built by Frederik IV between 1699 and 1735 as a summer residence after his travels in Italy. The catch is that **the palace itself cannot be visited**: since 1869 it has housed the **Royal Danish Military Academy**, and opens to the public only on very rare tours. What surrounds it is the destination. **Frederiksberg Gardens** in front of it is one of the most beautiful parks in the city and one of the least crowded with tourists: wide lawns, old trees, and a **network of canals** the royal family moved along in flat boats. Visitors can still hire a rowing boat and go into the same canals in summer. The park also holds a small **Chinese pavilion** on an island, a **Swiss cottage**, and an artificial waterfall. Note: the fence of **Copenhagen Zoo** adjoins the park to the south, and there is a well-known spot from which you can see the **elephants for free** from outside.
A rowing boat can be hired to go into them in summer.
A spot by the zoo fence where the elephants can be seen for free.
A small pavilion on an island among the garden canals.
Roskildevej 28A, Frederiksberg, Copenhagen
**Frederiksberg is a separate municipality** entirely surrounded by Copenhagen — an administrative enclave inside the capital with its own council, taxes and municipal police. It arose historically when the palace and its village lay outside the city walls; Copenhagen then grew around it and never absorbed it. In practice a visitor notices no boundary: the metro and buses cross it without a break, and it is about half an hour's walk from the city centre to the gardens, or two stops on metro line **M3** to Frederiksberg. The district itself is quieter, smarter and greener than central Copenhagen.
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