Grasten Palace

Grasten has been the royal family's summer residence in southern Jutland since 1935, a long white two-storey house rebuilt in the 1750s after fires destroyed its predecessors, standing between a lake and a park. The chapel of 1699 survives from the earlier building and is the oldest part, with baroque woodwork. Because the house is a working residence, only the chapel opens and only occasionally, but the garden is opened to the public whenever the family is not there: a large formal rose garden with several thousand plants, laid out in beds below the house, along with lawns, a lake walk and woodland. The village around it is small, with a harbour on the fjord and a set of gardens the estate maintains.

History

Gråsten began as a small hunting castle in the middle of the 16th century; after a fire a second building went up in 1603, and under Carl von Ahlefeldt it was replaced by a grand Baroque palace completed shortly before 1700. A fire in 1757, under the Duke of Augustenburg, destroyed that palace except for the chapel and two pavilions, and in 1759 the duke had Johann Gottfried Rosenberg rebuild it in Rococo style, considerably smaller than before. Hans Christian Andersen visited Duke Christian August II here in November 1845; legend says he wrote The Little Match Girl during the stay, but he wrote it at Augustenborg. After some three and a half centuries in the hands of nobles the palace was taken over by the state and restored, and after their wedding in 1935 it was given as a summer residence to Crown Prince Frederik, later King Frederik IX, and Crown Princess Ingrid, who loved it until her death in November 2000; it remains the royal family's summer residence (Wikipedia, Gråsten Palace).

What's there

• The formal rose garden - several thousand plants in beds below the house.
• The 1699 chapel - baroque woodwork surviving from the earlier palace.
• The lake and park walk - grounds running down to the water.
• The white summer palace - the residence itself, seen from the garden.

When to go

April to October for the garden, though it closes entirely when the family is in residence, usually for weeks in summer; check before travelling. Two hours. Roses are at their best in June and July.

What to expect

Closures are frequent and unpredictable because they depend on the royal calendar, and there is no warning at the gate. The house is never open. The chapel opens rarely. There is little else in the village.

Nearby

Sonderborg Castle is east on Als; the Flensburg Fjord coast runs south.

Key facts