Changing of the Guard at Amalienborg Palace

Even at night the guards walk their rounds and try to stay in sync across the roundabout.

Amalienborg consists of four palaces. Queen Magrethe uses Christian IX's Palais, also called Schacks Palais, in the winter months. And when the flag is up, it's home too. From here she gives the New Year's address to the nation on New Year's Eve. When the royal family shows on the balcony, it is from this palace.

You shouldn't believe it: it took 14 years to complete this equestrian statue and then it cost even more than all 4 Palais of Amalienborg put together. This must have been good business for the French sculptor Jacques-François-Joseph Saly, because it took him a few years to complete the plaster figure. But it gets even better: In 1764, Pierre Gors, the best bronze caster of the time, comes to town with 5 journeymen. First of all, the roof was hewn out of the workshop house in order to put the large stove in there. Then Gors made himself and his family kingdom by buying the building materials at the expense of the state and largely reselling them on their own account. Even sculptor Saly went too far, what bronze caster Gors was doing and the story tells of a proper fight between the two. It's good the king didn't notice the drama. He died four years before it was inaugurated in 1768. The 22-ton monument was pulled by 200 sailors on a sledge from Kongens Nytorv, where the workshop was, to Amalienborg. This took them 2 days.