The Court Theatre

Above the stables by Christiansborg Riding Ground, you will find a well-preserved Court Theatre from the 18th century Rococo period.

The Court Theatre at Christiansborg Palace is Denmark’s oldest specialized museum and home to 300 years of royal, architectural, art, cultural and democratic history. It was built at the behest of Kind Christian VII, who wanted his own private court theater, just like his colleagues around Europe during the Enlightenment. The Court Theatre was not just used for performances and concerts, it also hosted masquerades and other festive events that reinforced the king’s position and social network. It was built above the stables so the king could look down over his horses and coaches or view the large festivals that were also held there.

Treading the Sloping Boards

The theater was built as a box in an already existing space. The architect appointed to design the theater was classicist Nicolas-Henrik Jardin from France. He had arrived in Denmark to teach at the newly established Danish school of architecture. There is not much left of his original ornamentation, as the theater was renovated to keep pace with the changing times, and the tastes and focus of different kings. However, the stage itself has had a lasting impact on the Danish language. To this day, the Danes talk of treading the sloping boards when an actor is on stage. This is because the stage was constructed with an incline away from the audience, which dramatically changed the perspective and acoustics for the audience. The stage could be levelled when the room was used for a masquerade ball.

Democratization of Architecture

When the theater was built, it was intended to be a way of staging the king for the sake of the king himself. The staircase that greets visitors today was not originally part of the theater because the general public were not allowed inside. Only special guests were allowed entrance via a secret door. The theater changed with the times, and the pink and red interior it has today are the result of changes made by King Christian VIII in the 1800s. He was king during the transition from absolute monarchy to democracy, when the rise of the middle classes caused a shift in power. The changes made to the Court Theatre over time are almost symbolic reflections of the changes undergone by society as a whole.

Intimate Architecture

The Court Theatre is, and always will be, a setting for intimate stories and personal taste. When it closed due to the many theater fires across Europe in the late 1800s, it was a space enveloped by the Biedermeier-esque sentiment that was popular at the time. In new democracies across Europe, the Biedermeier period (regency period) was characterized by the influx of salons and cultural trends that also made their way into Copenhagen’s cultural elite.  The theater’s inventory was sold off once it closed, and the plan was to tear down the building. Happily, that never happened. Instead, the theater became Denmark’s first specialized museum accessible to the public. Today, visitors can step back in time and imagine life as a king, viewing the stage through a peephole as he sat on the privy. So, yes, there’s no doubt that the Court Theatre is rather intimate architecture.

Near the Court Theatre

To get a better sense of the burgeoning middle classes of the 18th and 19th centuries, walk from the The Theatre Museum at The Court Theatre to another institution that is also part of the Copenhagen Cultural District: The National Museum of Denmark. Many notable and influential architects, noblemen and other prominent persons lived in the area and may have taken the walk across the marble bridge to enter the theater through the secret door.