Klitgaarden ( lit. "The Dune House") is a former summer residence of the Danish royal family situated just south of

Skagen Skagen () is the northernmost town in Denmark, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in North Denmark Region, Nordjylland, north of Frederikshavn and northeast of Aalbo ...

on the northern tip of

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

. The house was designed by Ulrik Plesner for King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine and completed in 1914. It is now owned and run by a trust and serves as a retreat for artists and scientists.

History

When Prince Christian married Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin at a low-key ceremony in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

in 1898, the couple was given Marselisborg Palace just south of

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

as a summer residence by

Aarhus Municipality Aarhus Municipality (), known as Århus Municipality () until 2011, is a ''Municipalities of Denmark, kommune'' in the Central Denmark Region, on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and ...

. However, the princess fell in love with the scenic and exotic area around

. For the last couple of decades the town had played host to a thriving artists colony of

Skagen painters The Skagen Painters () were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the village of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen was a summer destination whose scenic nature, local mi ...

and since 1890, when it was connected by train to Frederikshavn, it had developed into a mondain summer destination. Prince Christian became crown prince of Denmark in January 1906 and when the couple attended the inauguration of the new Skagen harbour the following year, they discreetly visited a number of possible building sites, yet nothing happened until after their ascent to the throne in 1912. Queen Alexandrine missed a retreat from the official life in Copenhagen of more private and intimate proportions than that of Marselisborg. Word was therefore passed to the mayor of Skagen and soon after the city council presented the royal couple with a 4.5 ha piece of land situated directly on the East Coast a few kilometres south of town. The architect Ulrik Plesner was charged with the task of designing a suitable house. He was an active member of the artist community in the town, and had already designed a number of prominent buildings there, including the railway station and the church. At the same time he was very active in Copenhagen where, as a result of his spacious, light-filled rooms and clean, aesthetic facades, he had become one of the main proponents of the reaction against the excess of the Historicist style which had dominated

Danish architecture The architecture of Denmark has its origins in the Viking Age, revealed by archaeological finds. It was established in the Middle Ages when first Romanesque architecture, Romanesque, then Gothic architecture, Gothic churches and cathedrals, wer ...

for some time. Construction started in 1913 and the house was inaugurated in the spring of 1914. Over the following decades, Christian X and Queen Alexandrine spent many holidays at the house, especially Easter. Michael Ancher, one of the leading Skagen painters, became a close personal friend of the king. The house was originally located some 50 metres from the sea but the entire beach was washed away during a storm in the autumn of 1919. After the king's death in 1947 the dowager queen took up residency there for extended periods until her own death five years later. Klitgaarden was then inherited by Hereditary Prince Knud while his elder brother, King Frederik IX, received the more representative Marselisborg Palace. Prince Knud and his family were also frequent users of the property but in 1995 it was put up for sale by his heirs. With inspiration from San Cataldo in

Amalfi Amalfi (, , ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (1,315 metres, 4,314 feet), surrounded by dramatic c ...

in Italy, which had served as a retreat for Danish artists and scientists since 1924, consideration was given to turning Klitgaarden into a similar venue. The town of Skagen and a circle of prominent cultural figures including the writer

Klaus Rifbjerg Klaus Rifbjerg (15 December 1931 – 4 April 2015) was a Danish writer. He authored more than 170 novels, books and essays. In 1965 he co-produced the film '' 4x4'' which was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival. Biography R ...

and art collector and founder of the

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, also known as the Louisiana, is an art museum located north of Copenhagen, Denmark. Attracting over 700,000 guests annually, the Louisiana is Scandinavia's most visited museum for Modern art, modern and contempor ...

Knud W. Jensen, collaborated to raise the funds needed to realize the plans. After a thorough renovation the refuge opened its doors in the summer of 2000.

Architecture and furnishings

The house is a compact, three-winged building in two storeys. It is built in red bricks, but with yellow whitewashed walls typical of the area and has a steep roof topped by whitewashed chimneys. Plesner also designed all the furniture. For the living room, the artist Harald Slott-Møller was commissioned to design 55 ornamental plates decorated with the signs of the

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...

, traditional costumes and coats of arms from Danish market towns.

Klitgaarden today

The purpose of Klitgaarden is to provide Danish artists and researchers with a quiet, inspirational workplace for short periods and to create an environment where the residents can inspire each other. The house has 13 single rooms and one double room. It also provides meeting rooms and studios.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klitgarden Royal residences in Denmark Listed buildings and structures in Frederikshavn Municipality Buildings and structures in Skagen Houses completed in 1914 Christian X of Denmark