The Christiansborg Fires

The first Christiansborg, built between 1733 and 1745, burned on 26 February 1794 after a stove near the Grand Hall overheated. Only the Royal Stables, the court theatre, the showgrounds and the Marble Bridge survived. The second Christiansborg burned in 1884. Those same eighteenth-century structures came through both fires and are standing today.

First palace built1733–1745

First fire26 February 1794

CauseAn overheated stove near the Grand Hall

SurvivedRoyal Stables, court theatre, showgrounds, Marble Bridge

Second fire1884

Still standingThe same four structures

A stove

The first Christiansborg took twelve years to build and burned because a stove near the Grand Hall got too hot on 26 February 1794. Four things came out of it: the Royal Stables, the court theatre, the showgrounds and the Marble Bridge. Ninety years later the replacement burned too, in 1884, and those same four survived a second time, which makes them the most fire-resistant addresses in Denmark by pure accident.

The pattern

Copenhagen burned in 1728, burned again on 5 June 1795, was shelled and burned by the Royal Navy in September 1807, and burned its royal palace in 1794 and 1884. A city built largely of timber, lit and heated by fire, kept demonstrating the obvious. The difference between 1794 and 1728 is only scale: the 1728 fire took 47% of the medieval core and left 15,000 people homeless. See the fire of 1728 and the fire of 1795.

What people ask instead

Whether it is haunted. There is no record of it, and this site does not manufacture one. The Danish ghost stories attached to royal buildings are the cat at Rosenborg and Frederik VI as a small dog at Frederiksberg, both told as legends — see the Rosenborg ghost cat and the haunted places page. The guided walk that deals with the documented half is here.

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Frequently asked questions

When did Christiansborg burn?

Twice: the first palace on 26 February 1794, after a stove near the Grand Hall overheated, and the second in 1884.

What survived the Christiansborg fires?

The Royal Stables, the court theatre, the showgrounds and the Marble Bridge. The same four eighteenth-century structures came through both fires.

Is Christiansborg haunted?

There is no record of it. The Danish palace ghost legends attach to Rosenborg and Frederiksberg — see the Rosenborg cat.