St Anne's Friary In
medieval times there was a
chapel dedicated to
Saint Anne in the area, which probably belonged to the Guild of St. Anna in Helsingør. In 1438 the chapel was given to a community of
Franciscan friars which had been founded in 1419, who then converted the chapel into a
friary also dedicated to Saint Anne, of which nothing remains except the street name, Sankt Anna Gade in Helsingør. The friary was confiscated by the crown during the
Reformation of 1536 and was probably part of the royal property on the grounds, called Lundegaard, where an old stone house is known to have existed in 1576.
Frederick II's pavilion and garden During the 1420s, King
Eric of Pomerania created
Kronborg Castle, the castle immortalized in Shakespeare's play,
Hamlet. It was built like a strong fortress for guarding
Øresund and ensuring payment of
sound dues which were enforced by the immediate firing of all
cannons on any
ship that refused to pay. It was very effective and collected two thirds of crown revenues. By the late
Renaissance, tastes had changed and Kronborg's high walls and
bastions made it impossible to have a grand
renaissance garden. An old monastery north of the yard was therefore chosen as the new location and named Lundhave after the royal estate. In 1587,
Hans van Steenwinckel the royal
architect built a
parterre garden and a
pavilion for King
Frederick II of Denmark. It was a three-story building, in the northern Italian
renaissance style. The first floor had an armory, that also stored equipment for
equestrian competitions, one of the so-called
noble disciplines, which also included
fencing and
dance. This was taught to all nobles at the time through the
knight academies. The second floor was where the queen consort,
Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, had her rooms and the top floor was for the king. Sadly, he would only have a short time to enjoy his newly built pavilion and garden, as he died in 1588, barely a year after construction was completed. His son, King
Christian IV of Denmark, would however get to use it throughout his
reign, coming there often and spending large sums of money improving the garden and planting rare trees. He would also keep many
pheasants and other
game birds on the estate, for hunting.
Lundhave from the 1650s to 1750s King
Frederik III of Denmark took over the royal estate in 1648 after the death of his father and seems not to have been very interested in the pavilion but did have the new
gardener simplify and restructure the grounds by planting a
fruit and
vegetable garden. Ten years later, the
1658 war with Sweden took its toll on the pavilion, but the garden did not suffer too much damage. It remained mostly unused until the end of Frederik III's reign in 1670. A depiction of the pavilion and gardens can be seen in
Peder Resen's Atlas Danicus dated 1660 and published in 1677. In the drawings he calls the pavilion and garden,
Kongenshafve (The King's Garden). It was King
Christian V of Denmark who once again brought life back to the pavilion, often coming to
hunt and relax in the gardens. He was also the first to give it a complete
renovation. This was done between 1680 and 1681 by
Hans van Steenwinckel Jr. to repair the damage that had been caused by general aging over the last century and the recent war with Sweden. Steenwinckel Jr. kept to his father's original drawings, making only a few minor cosmetic changes, like the addition of Christian V's
monogram and the year 1681. From 1699 till 1723, the pavilion was owned by
Frederick IV of Denmark who renovated it between 1716 and 1717. The king would not return after his marriage to
Anne Sophie Reventlow on April 4, 1721.
Frederick V of Denmark decided in 1747 to lease Lundhave for four years to Lieutenant Burghof and then, in 1751, sold the property to Johannes G. Putscher, a citizen of Helsingør.
Frederik V's pleasure palace Lord Chamberlain, Count
Adam Gottlob Moltke purchased Lundhave in 1758. It is believed he acted on Frederik V's behalf as the
deed was issued to the king in 1760 and kept secret until his death in 1766. During these years, Count Moltke completely changed Frederik II's pavilion with the help of
French architect
Nicolas-Henri Jardin, whose additions led to its present-day
architectural structure and
façade. Jardin's initial instructions were to
preserve the original pavilion, but he decided to build extensions on either side of the original building, thus creating a palace. They would be of the same height and depth but pulled back a little so as to allow the original pavilion to stand out in relation to the additions. The original lines were preserved and the entire building was brought together visually by a strong rotating main
cornice, crowned by a
balustrade around the flat roof. The building's exterior also had horizontal bands of polished stone, medallions, festive additions over the windows and arcades on the second floor, emphasizing the classical architecture that Jardin had introduced to Denmark. The
interior decoration had a number of prestigious Louis XVI interiors created by artists such as painter
Carl Gustaf Pilo, decorators
Joseph Christian Lillie,
Johan Edvard Mandelberg and sculptor
Simon Carl Stanley. The parterre gardens were changed to a larger
garden à la française design, with symmetrical hedging, avenues, boxwood hedges, fountains and mirror ponds. She would use the castle often until her death in 1796. During the transition period after her death, there was talk of
Crown Prince Frederik taking up residence there but it was not to be. Instead, between 1796 and 1847, it became the residence of the
director-general of
Øresund Custom House, Colonel
Adam Gottlob von Krogh and his wife Magdalene. He built a small thatched half-timbered house, and Krogh's garden in a little grove on the property in 1800. The building is no longer visible but parts of the small stone fence around the garden can still be seen. Close to the garden is Magdalene's Hill where von Krogh set up a monument in the 1830s honoring his wife.
Sold to Helsingør municipality The entire property was offered for sale at
public auction by King
Frederick VII of Denmark in 1851. The Helsingør municipality purchased it for 32,000 Rigsbankdaler, parceling out most of the land, then renting out the castle to J.S. Nathanson with his nearby Marienlyst Health Spa and Bathing House (
Marienlyst Kur og Søbad). He renovated the castle, making it part of his resort. The connection to the health spa closed in 1896 and, in 1904, the castle was rented out as accommodation for three families. ==Park==