Amalienborg

Amalienborg is really four palaces rather than one — four nearly identical Rococo mansions arranged around an octagonal square at the centre of Copenhagen's Frederiksstaden quarter. Drawn up by the architect Nicolai Eigtved and finished around 1760, they were first built for four noble families, with the equestrian statue of King Frederik V commanding the middle of the square.

When the first Christiansborg went up in flames in 1794, the royal family purchased the four palaces and moved across the city. They have remained the chief home of the Danish monarchs ever since, and one of the four is today the residence of King Frederik X and Queen Mary.

What it is famous for

The square is best known for its daily changing of the guard: each day around noon the soldiers of the Royal Life Guard (Den Kongelige Livgarde), in bearskin caps and blue greatcoats, march across the city from Rosenborg to take over the watch at the palace gates. When the monarch is in residence, the full version of the ceremony is performed.

One of the palaces holds the Amalienborg Museum, where the private studies and sitting-rooms of recent kings and queens survive almost untouched, offering a rare close-up of the modern monarchy and of the long reign of Christian IX, remembered as the "father-in-law of Europe".

Good to know

The square itself never closes and costs nothing to cross; only the museum charges entry. Amalienborg sits a short walk from Nyhavn and the Marble Church, in a district best taken in on foot or by harbour bus. Visitors are asked to respect the working royal residence and the guards on duty.