Supposedly the Queen of Denmark's favourite abode, the 1720 Fredensborg Slot is a grand palace in Italian baroque style. Getting inside is only possible by tour in midsummer, but you can admire the gracious facade from the octagonal forecourt or from behind if you walk anticlockwise through the park, which is a major part of the site's attraction. When the royals are in residence, guards in white-striped uniforms and bearskin hats perform a changing of the guard ceremony at noon.
The name Fredensborg – meaning ‘Peace Palace’ – commemorates the truce that Denmark had just achieved with its Scandinavian neighbours when the palace was commissioned. Indeed, the building's unfortified architectural elegance – which sees it nicknamed 'Denmark's Versailles' – reflects the more tranquil mood of that era, an abrupt contrast with the far more formidable moat-encircled fortresses of Kronborg and Frederiksborg that preceded it.
The palace is well signposted, about 1km north of Fredensborg train station.
