Odense Palace

Monastery

The Knights of St John were recorded in Odense by 1280, and they likely took over a monastery there around 1400. This house grew over the following century to become their second most significant in Denmark, surpassed only by the mother house at Antvorskov.

The south wing and the eastern wing’s oldest section were built in the early 1400s, and still show blocked-up windows and arches. St. John’s, the monastery church, holds numerous tombstones and heraldic shields of prominent local families; nobles often attended services there, and many elderly aristocrats chose to live out their last years in the monastery. The churchyard contains the ruined hospice, a key medieval welfare institution in Odense.

Palace

After the Reformation in 1536, the monastery became royal property and was renamed Odensegård. Its property merged with Næsbyhoved Castle under the name Odensegård Seigneury, and Claus Daa was the first holder. Remaining monks shared the premises with him.

Seigniors lived on their own properties in summer and wintered at Odensegård. In the 1570s, Frederick II had the monastery rebuilt to accommodate the royal family, completed in 1575, with royal bedchambers and reception rooms in the west wing, the seigneurial residence in the east, and the kitchen in the south; an additional story was added to all wings. The building remained almost unchanged until 1720.

During the Dano-Swedish wars, Odense was occupied by Swedes who billeted troops in the palace, destroying all furnishings. After the introduction of absolute monarchy in 1660, the palace became the residence of the amt administrator of Funen. Frederick IV, dissatisfied with Odensegård, commissioned Johan Cornelius Krieger to rebuild it. Between 1721 and 1723, a new main building was erected on the north side, containing a great hall (the Rosensal), new private chambers for the king and queen, and many guest rooms.

The king was pleased, especially with the new gardens, and visited several times; he died there on 12 October 1730. After his death, kings stayed only in passing, though foreign rulers used the complex on their way to and from Copenhagen. During the Napoleonic Wars, the palace served as a command centre for generals including French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, later King Charles XIV John of Sweden.

Governor's residence

After Norway was lost in 1814, the Crown Prince who would become Christian VIII, having been elected Norway's king, took on the role of governor for Funen and Langeland. His wife, Caroline Amalie, won great affection in Odense for her efforts to improve local life. Between 1816 and 1847, Odense Palace served as the administrative center for Funen under a series of crown princes, turning the city into a miniature Copenhagen. Hans Christian Andersen’s mother worked at the palace, and the young boy was invited inside, where he performed scenes by Ludvig Holberg and made up a song on the spot.

As a child, Andersen also played with young Prince Frits, the future Frederick VII, who governed Funen from 1839 to 1848. Frederick VII lived in the palace with his second wife, Mariane of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and carried out a full restoration. When that marriage fell apart, a ground-floor apartment was built for his mistress, Louise Rasmussen, later his morganatic wife Countess Danner, connected to the king’s rooms by a hidden staircase. Frederick became king on 20 January 1848, and when he soon moved to Copenhagen, the governorate was ended.

Museum and administrative building

In 1860, the palace's many empty grand rooms led to a basement museum. During the Second Schleswig War, the lowest floor became an infirmary, forcing a quick removal of exhibits; they returned in 1865 and steadily grew. The collection relocated in 1885 to what is now the Funen Museum of Art, freeing space for government offices, apartments, and the Funen Divisional Officers Library from 1914. The state sold the palace to Odense Municipality in 1907, opening the King's Garden to the public.

Later, it housed services like the fire station and the amt council. When the amt system ended in 2007, nearly five centuries of state administration in Odense concluded. Today, the newly renovated palace serves as the municipality's urban and cultural administration.