Order of the Elephant: Dwight D Eisenhower
Eisenhower was awarded with the highest order of merit in Denmark, and his coat of arms hangs in the chapel where kings and queens were crowned.
So today started out in NOT the most efficient manner. We trudged out of our hotel in Roskilde and boarded a regional train BACK to Copenhagen, so that we could transfer to an S train (urban-suburban train) to make our way North to Hillerød. It turns out that we REALLY could have just kept our Hotel in Copenhagen and made a day trip to Roskilde instead of overnighting. Nonetheless, we think it’s good that we had an opportunity to spend the night somewhere different, and we didn’t have to hurry to get back on a train back to Copenhagen!
There was a VERY loud group of Americans on the train. An older father was traveling with his wife and three adult daughters in Denmark. He had previously lived in Denmark as a mormon missionary (commence rolling of the eyes), which is kind of ridiculous given Denmark’s religious sensibilities. I do love the Danish take on religion…KEEP IT TO YOURSELF! No, we didn’t talk to any of them. How did we know all this? Because they blabbed AT each other at high volume the entire time we were on the train: “How many stops do we have left?” “We’re going to Hiller-rod street right? Oh that ‘St’ means station?” “Do you know who died recently?” One of them was actually reading her emails out loud to her mother. This was followed by the out-loud reading of obituaries. What in the damned hell?! Jessi and I were baffled. The Danes in the car gawked and stared and blinked. Their withering looks and death glares radiated off of the noisy, rude oblivious Americans, and we just covered our faces, and smiled, and shook our heads.
When the train finally pulled into Hillerød STATION, we walked the short distance into town and dropped off our bags at the hotel. It was time to visit a fairy tale castle from the 17th century…
Frederiksborgslot
This amazing castle was built for King Christian IV in the 1600s. He must have really liked this place, because his name and monogram and picture are everywhere on the grounds and in the palace.
The castle of Christian IV was actually built on top of another castle, built by Frederik II (hence the name Frederiksborgslot), and at the time it was the largest royal residence in Europe. Unfortunately, the whole thing burned in a fire in 1849, and so much of the original interior was lost forever. Some parts of the castle survived; however, a good amount of the castle was left with just its walls. The castle was built back up and restored with the help of J.C. Jacobsen, a brewer in Copenhagen. You might have heard of his world famous beer, Carlsberg!
One cool thing I need to point out right away: Ole Christian IV had a throne elevator that popped out up into his audience chamber. The museum guide confirms that the museum has tested this mechanism, and it does, indeed, work! Now I kind of want my own! Wouldn’t it be awesome if you came to our house and I appeared from the floor on my own throne? We call that a conversation starter!
In the planning of the restoration, the royal family declined to keep the castle as a residence, and so it was decided that the castle would be restored as the National Museum of the History of Denmark. The halls were filled with paintings and artifacts of Denmark’s past. New paintings were commissioned to depict crucial moments in Denmark’s history. The castle chapel, where kings and queens were crowned, was restored to its former majesty. Today, we had the pleasure and privilege to tour all of it. The experience is information overload. The castle is split into sections for each reigning regent of Denmark who lived there. Each section is styled after the particular period for when that king/queen was on the throne and displays paintings and artifacts from other key historical figures of the time. For example Christian VII’s room was styled in 18th century rococo, and it contained many pictures of the 17 year old schizophrenic boy that became a king. It also contained paintings of his wife, and the travelling doctor, who basically ruled over the kingdom when Christian VII was very ill. His name was Johan Friedrich Struensee, and he jockeyed with all the other court doctors to elbow his way into the king’s affections at court. He was rumored to be in love with the queen as well. On our tour of the National Museet (National Museum) in Copenhagen, we saw the axe that was used to execute him!
One really cool thing about the castle was the chapel, which contains the majority of the shields with coats of arms that are scattered all over the castle. These shields are made when one Denmark’s two national orders of merit are issued for someone. They bear the name of that person, the date that the order was bestowed, and that person’s coat of arms. It seems that there are thousands of these hanging in the chapel and on the stairwells of the castle. The two orders are: The order of the Dannebrog and the Oder of the Elephant.
The Order of the Dannebrog is awarded to Danes (both men and women) for major contributions to Danish society either civil or military. It is also awarded to diplomats and foreign dignitaries under certain conditions. The sashes on those plates are white and have the Dannebrog (Danish Cross) at the bottom in white.
The Order of the Elephant is an ancient chivalric order of another name from the 15th century that morphed into what we know today. It is the highest order of merit that can be given by Denmark, and its membership consists of mostly members of the royal family and foreign heads of state. On very rare occasion, the order has been bestowed on a commoner. The sashes of these sheilds are blue, and an elephant pendant with a castle on its back hangs beneath the sash. Something super surprising to discover was that US President Dwight Eisenhower is one such head of state that was awarded this merit in the post-war era. Thusly, President Eisenhower has a shield of his own, bearing his name and personal coat of arms. I spent about 15 minutes hunting it down. It was super hard to find at first (there are a lot of shields), but was actually hung at about eye-level! I had to look up Eisenhower’s coat of arms and scan the walls in order to find it. I have included a picture below!
Another hidden gem was an art installation on the third floor, containing art from Denmark’s modern era 1910-today. There were some really cool paintings, showing artists and poets in portrait as well as current and previous royals. There were also busts, and a special exhibit of normal Danes doing normal Danish things. A portrait of Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen adorns the walls as well. There were busts of the famous philosopher Kierkegaard, and a portrait of Hans Christian-Anderson. It was super neat!
One of the key features of this castle is a stunning baroque-style garden on its North side. The garden is kept in pristine condition and is available for all citizens to stroll and enjoy. While we were there, many Danes were out enjoying a bike ride around the park or walking their dogs or running the beautiful paths around the gardens and woods. I’ll tell you…it was good to be the king! The stunning beauty of these gardens dropped our jaws. They seem to go on and on forever. Where the well kept gardens end, begin beautiful national forests, which once belonged to the royal family too. Glades of trees give way to ponds and lakes and streams with islets and small castles, bath palaces, and outposts. The whole thing is like some fairy tale come true. You would think that the rainy weather might have put a hamper on our will to explore the area, but it actually somehow made everything EVEN MORE beautiful. The rain spurred us on to keep walking! At some point we had to quit. We were exhausted. Earlier, between touring the castle and touring the gardens, we had checked into our hotel formally and taken a breather in our room. I don’t think we would have made it out of the woods otherwise!
Sore and weary, we stumbled our way back to the hotel for a rest, and then we ambled out to find dinner. Dinner came in the form of tapas from a restaurant near the edge of Hillerød’s main drag. We saw it and marked it on our way in this morning. I wasn’t expecting it, but these tapas are the best meal I’ve had in Denmark so far. I think it was the restaurant owner was serving us, and seemed to appreciate me telling him so. We didn’t really order a dessert, but suddenly it appeared and hey…what the hell right? Why not! We were not disappointed with a lemon curd, brownie, and a velvety creamy panna cotta.
There’s no way that I’ve covered any amount of material that is acceptable in relation to the wealth of knowledge contained in that castle, but I hope that I have at least brought a few neat things to the fore for you.
Thanks for tagging along and enjoy some lavish castle pictures!
