The Palace Then and Now

The original layout of the palace incorporated great architectural qualities, including the strict, clear sequence of rooms on the ground floor and first floor, the hierarchical interplay of large and small rooms and the interplay of rooms and facades. At the beginning of the refurbishment project in 2004, it was discovered that numerous rebuilding projects over the years had undermined the original plan arrangement. As many of the original layout qualities as possible were restored during the refurbishment project:

• the vestibule is now a three-bayed room;
• the hall in the south pavilion (ground floor) is now re-established;
• the anteroom north of the vestibule now appears as a unified room;
• the first floor of the south pavilion appears as a unified room illuminated from all four directions;
• the central lines of sight (enfilades) along both facades are re-established – on both the ground floor and the first floor;
• the new stairway in the middle of the palace vertically connects the ground floor, the first floor and the mezzanine (the mezzanine was cut off in 1828 by the removal of the Rococo stairway, and it is now possible to give a higher priority to the storey’s functional significance in the palace).

Colours

During the Empire era, painted ceilings and colourful panels – inspired by the contemporaneous archaeological finds in Pompeii – were widely used in Denmark. Studies of the palace show that most of the ceilings were painted in at least two colours, and usually more – up to ten in the Banquet Hall. These colours had completely disappeared from the ceilings after countless washings and coats of paint, but have now been re-created as part of the refurbishment.

The walls have been clad with taut canvas, as they were originally. Body paper has been applied to the canvas and painted with distemper.