Amalienborg and its district

The district is an 18th century extension of the medieval town of Copenhagen. Its central octagonal place and its two axial streets were laid out to celebrate the 300 year jubilee of the royal dynasty. Wealthy citizens built their houses here according to a frontage scheme worked out by the leading Danish architect of the period, Niels Eigtved. On the central place four nobles built four almost identical mansions, also by Niels Eigtved. They contain some of the most festive interiors of the country. A royal equestrian statue was erected in the middle of the place. The culmination of the whole is a domed church which, however, was built a hundred years later.