Sophie Amalienborg

Sophie Amalienborg
Sophie Amalienborg, gouache by Johan Jacob Bruun (1740)
General information
Architectural style	Baroque
Town or city	Copenhagen
Country	Denmark
Construction started	1669
Completed	1673
Demolished	19 April 1689
Client	Queen Consort Sophie Amalie
Design and construction
Architect	Albertus Mathiesen. (attributed)

Sophie Amalienborg was a pleasure palace roughly located where Amalienborg stands today in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built by Queen Consort Sophie Amalie who lived there until her death in 1685 after her husband, King Frederick III, died a few years prior to its completion.

It burnt down to the ground on 19 April 1689 in a fire which caused many casualties. A second Sophie Amalienborg was built at the site but demolished to make room for the development of Frederiksstaden

Sophie Amalienborg was built as a replacement for Queen's Garden, a complement to King's Garden located outside the Western City Gate, which had been destroyed by the Swedish troops during their Siege of Copenhagen in the Second Northern War from 1658 to 60.

At the end of the war, Sophie Amalie acquired several pieces of land in the area known as New Copenhagen which had recently been incorporated into the walled city after the course of Eastern Rampart had been changed. The land had originally been acquired by King Christian IV early in the century. Other parts of the land had been used for Rosenborg Castle and Nyboder even before the changes in the course of the fortifications but the area east of Bredgade had remained undeveloped.

The queens acquisitions occupied an area roughly defined by present-day Bredgade, Frederiksgade, Amaliegade and Sankt Annæ Plads. Work on the garden began in 1664 and from 1666 to 1667 the Frenchman Michel le Roy was responsible for its design, particularly that of the fountains and the water system. The pleasure palace was built from 1669 to 1673 after Sophie Amalie had succeeded in providing the necessary means in spite of the hard times following the war. It is unclear who was the architect of the building but it is generally attributed to Albertus Mathiesen. Another possibility is that le Roy was also involved in the design of the palace and not only the gardens. In early documents he is referred to merely as "Ingenieur", while he is later titulated "Baumeister der Koniginn".