Rosenborg

HISTORY OF ROSENBORG CASTLE

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III This first castle was still a very modest dwelling for the king and queen, and consequently Christian the Fourth soon began to th ink of making extensions. In fact, in 1610 he had fo u n d a t io n s la id fo r a r e s id e n t ia l pa lace o f such con ­ s id e ra b le d im en s ion s that, together w ith the small „summer house“ that was already standing, it would have been at least as big in ground area as F re d e r ik s b o rg . The subsequent war w ith Sweden (1611—1612), and the unexpected death of the queen (1612) prevented the carrying out of his plans; and after the successful conclusion of peace w ith Sweden (Ja­ nuary 1613), the king simply le n g th e n e d th e sm a lle r , b u t now w e llfo u n d e d b u ild in g s ym m e tr ic a lly abou t a new m id d le a x is , so th a t the new cas tle re c e iv e d tw o p r o je c t io n s on the east s ide and a new „ ro u n d “ (oc­ tagona l? ) s ta ir - to w e r a t the m id d le of the w es t façade. For the present, then, the house was one of two stories, and its only spire was on the stair-tower, as was the case w ith the first Rosenborg, A t this stage (1613—1614) the castle resembled Ib s t r u p , the country* residence on which Christian the Fourth had been working so zealously in the foregoing years after 1609. When the spire on the stairtower was completed — and therefore no longer appears in the accounts — the king held a „magnificent feast" (the 22nd of July 1615). By that time, however, he had already (since February of that year) ordered two spires to be raised on the projections to the east; and before these had been built up his ideas about the castle grew to such an extent that he determined to build an e n t ir e ly new s to ry on to i t