{"id":1273,"date":"2025-05-21T12:29:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/?page_id=1273"},"modified":"2026-01-21T13:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:33:46","slug":"100-aar-paa-klitgaarden","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/100-aar-paa-klitgaarden\/","title":{"rendered":"100 years at Klitgaarden"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n100 years at Klitgaarden\n<\/h1>
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of Lone K\u00fchlmann<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>

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Christian X. and Queen Alexandrine moved into their new house in Skagen at Easter 1914.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lone K\u00fchlmann<\/a>\u00a0Here is a brief history of the house:<\/p>\n

\u201dWas it a seaside hotel or something?\u201d asked The Great Poet, looking absently around the magnificent dining room with Ulrik Plesner\u2019s original furniture and Harald Slott-M\u00f8ller\u2019s market town plates designed for the house. I was about to get into my chicken fricassee. \u201dTell me, do you know anything at all,\u201d I said indignantly. \u201dIt must have been a royal villa!\u201d<\/p>\n

I realized I had to tell him the story:<\/p>\n

Klitgaarden might never have been created if it weren't for the painter Michael Ancher.<\/p>\n

It was Ancher who, with his famous painting\u00a0\u201dWill he be able to handle the decorations?\u201d<\/a>, first drew the royal family's attention to Skagen. The large painting was exhibited at Charlottenborg's Spring Exhibition in 1880 and caused a sensation. The Copenhagen Art Association immediately offered to buy it, but had to give way to the then National Gallery, today the Statens Museum for Kunst, which again had to withdraw when His Majesty, Chr. IX, fell in love with the painting. Chr. IX was not exactly known as an art lover, but the painting of the weather-beaten fishermen gazing out over the turbulent sea was given a permanent place in the dining room at Amalienborg, where it was admired by, among others, the king's 10-year-old grandson, the later Chr. X.<\/p>\n

The young Christian was just as uninterested in art as his grandfather, but when he married the lovely 18-year-old Alexandrine of Mecklenburg Schwerin in 1898 at the age of 28, he wanted to make her happy, and since she was interested in art, the couple went to Skagen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As young royals, they could stay at Br\u00f8ndums Hotel or with private friends and participate in the lively social life. For years, they were regular guests at the summer highlight among artists, Anna Ancher's birthday in August, and the parties around Grenen Badehotel, where the jet set of the time, including many royals from all over Europe, stayed.<\/p>\n

When Christian's father, Frederik IIX, died in 1912, the ball was over. A royal couple could not live in random places, there had to be orderly relations. Queen Alexandrine had become very attached to Skagen, and the king bought a large plot of land south of the harbor that same year.<\/p>\n

There was never any doubt that architect Ulrik Plesner would be in charge of the construction together with local craftsmen. Plesner had already made his mark on Skagen for years, and we can see from the correspondence between the client and the architect that the king already knew Plesner's houses and knew which details he wanted to have transferred to Klitgaarden, as the large, beautiful yellow house came to be called. Plesner also designed all the furniture for the house in the light Sk\u00f8nvirke style, which he had become acquainted with in England, where it was known as William Morris or the Arts & Crafts style.<\/p>\n

Although the furniture is light, it is made to a high standard by Skagen's local cabinetmaker. We can be sure of that, because it is still in the house today. All around the beautiful, simple rooms, but especially in the dining room and living room, which at Klitgaarden is called the sea room. Not to be confused with the garden room. There is no garden. But there is plenty of sea.<\/p>\n

At Easter 1914, the house was ready to receive the royal family. A large house of 700 square meters, but modest by royal standards. Not built for representation but for a relaxed family life. Easter, Whitsun and September, when the king went hunting. The house was Queen Alexandrine's personal property, and she bequeathed it to her youngest son, Prince Knud, who used it as a summer home. When his widow, Crown Princess Caroline Mathilde, died in 1995, Klitgaarden was put up for sale. There were fears that the historic house would end up as time-share apartments, but courageous people led by the then municipal director Karen Krause took action, and in 2000, after a thorough restoration, the house was able to open as a refuge for artists and researchers.<\/p>\n

That's why The Great Poet and I and a lot of other lucky people can sit here summer and winter in the 100-year-old house in the 100-year-old furniture and eat chicken fricassee, and work, and talk to each other, and become wiser by talking to each other.<\/p>\n

And sometimes get a little irritated talking to each other.<\/p>\n

Beach hotel! Honestly!<\/p>\n

Lone K\u00fchlmann, 2014<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>

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\nThree voices in words\n<\/h1>
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In this section you can delve into three different texts, written by three different voices, all of whom have visited Klitgaarden over the past 25 years. The texts form a mosaic of historical knowledge, customs, impressions and experiences, which together add multiple perspectives to the story of Klitgaarden as a royal residence and refuge.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\nIn lonely majesty \n<\/h3>
\nby researcher and sexologist Christian Graugaard \n<\/div>
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\nThe generous spirit of refuge at the Royal Villa\n<\/h3>
\nby editor and curator Charlotte Jul \n<\/div>
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100 \u00e5r p\u00e5 Klitgaarden af Lone K\u00fchlmann Christian X. og dronning Alexandrine flyttede ind i deres nye hus i Skagen i p\u00e5sken 1914.\u00a0 Lone K\u00fchlmann\u00a0giver her et rids af husets historie: \u201dHar det v\u00e6ret badehotel eller s\u00e5dan noget?\u201d\u00a0spurgte Den store Digter, og s\u00e5 sig distr\u00e6t rundt i den pragtfulde spisestue med Ulrik Plesners originale m\u00f8bler […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1273","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1687,"href":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1273\/revisions\/1687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klitgaarden.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}