The Winter Room (room 1)
When you enter Christian IV’s Winter Room, you are standing in one of the best-preserved rooms from the time of Christian IV – not just here at Rosenborg Castle but anywhere in Denmark. You are also in the most significant of Christian IV’s three private rooms.
A close look at the life and death of Christian IV
The Winter Room is under restoration
The Winter Room is currently under restoration. This is the first time that the entire original decoration of the room is systematically inspected and treated at once. This systematic inspection, undertaken by researchers, conservators, historians and art historians in collaboration, offers a rare opportunity to gather information and new insights into the unique space of the Winter Room.
The Winter Room and Christian IV
When Christian IV was alive, he used the Winter Room as one of his audience halls here at Rosenborg Castle. Since his bedroom was right next door, he had a small peephole installed in the door between the Winter Room and his bedchamber. Perhaps because this would allow him to prepare for the person awaiting him in the Winter Room? It is also possible that Christian IV used the peephole to send a discreet signal to his servants to initiate the music. As a special feature, acclaimed then and now, Christian IV had hidden audio channels built into the Winter Room. The channels led into a room in the basement under the Winter Room. Here, a group of musicians played music that could be heard in the Winter Room, even though there were no musicians present in the room. At the time, nobody had ever experienced anything like this, and it was a source of marvel for The King’s guests. Today, the channels are usually blocked off for security reasons, but you can see where they were. If you look into the corners by the bays; you will see a narrow metal trim on the edge of the tiles that can be taken up. For many years, the audio channels were sealed completely, but their approximate location was known from source descriptions. Based on this information, they were rediscovered and reopened in 2007.
Another unique feature of the Winter Room is that the room was connected to the other floors of the castle – including the wine cellar – through speaking tubes. In this way, Christian IV was able to communicate with his servants without needing to leave the room.
The bays at the north side of the room were not added until 1758, that is, more than a century after the death of Christian IV. However, we know from written sources that during his time, there was a mechanical winch in front of the right-hand bay that could be used to raise and lower the drawbridge to the castle. When Christian IV lived here at Rosenborg Castle, there was a moat all the way round the castle, and the only access was via the drawbridge.
If you stand in the middle of the room, you will be standing where we assume that Christian IV’s coffin stood when he was lying in state in the Winter Room after his death. He was buried at Roskilde Cathedral.
The beautiful panelling on the walls of the Winter Room was created by Court Cabinetmaker Gregor Greuss and was completed around 1620. The embedded paintings were purchased in Antwerp and make an exceptional collection of art from the Netherlands. Unfortunately, today, we only know the names of a few of the artists. The paintings were not made specifically for the Winter Room but were made in fixed sizes, so that they were fairly easy to adapt to the panels.
Around 1700, the original stucco ceiling was replaced by mythological paintings by Pieter Isaacsz.
Objects in the room
If you are physically at the museum, you can admire the outstanding objects and read more about them below.
Please note that these descriptions are brief and often without images. They serve as an additional resource for those who wish to gain more knowledge about each object, such as who created them, their origin, and significance.