Rosenborg Castle, the Crown Jewels and Christiansborg Palace

Copenhagen holds two contrasting royal complexes within a fifteen-minute walk of each other in Indre By: Rosenborg Castle, an intimate 17th-century Dutch Renaissance pleasure house surrounded by rose gardens and lawns, and Christiansborg Palace, the monumental granite-clad island fortress where Denmark's Parliament, Supreme Court, Prime Minister's Office and Royal Reception Rooms all share one roof.

Rosenborg Castle (Rosenborg Slot) and Kongens Have

Built between 1606 and 1633 by King Christian IV as his country summerhouse just outside the old medieval walls, Rosenborg Castle sits inside Kongens Have (The King's Garden), Copenhagen's oldest and busiest public park. Because the royal family stopped using Rosenborg as a permanent residence in the early 1700s, its rooms were preserved almost intact as a time capsule of 17th-century absolutist splendour:

• The Knights' Hall (Riddersalen) on the top floor: guarded by three life-size silver lions standing before the coronation thrones of narwhal tusk and gilded wood, with twelve monumental woven hangings celebrating Christian V's victories.
• Christian IV's Winter Room, Writing Closet and Glass Cabinet: oak-panelled rooms with paintings set into the panelling, porcelain-tiled walls and an entire vaulted turret lined floor-to-ceiling with delicate Venetian glassware.
• The subterranean Treasury: descend beneath the castle moat into the armoured vaults to see the Danish Crown Jewels (four complete sets of emeralds, rubies, pearls and diamonds still worn by the Queen on state occasions) alongside Christian IV's enamelled gold saddle and gem-encrusted coronation crown of 1596. Book a timed online slot before visiting.

Christiansborg Palace, the Free Tower and the Royal Library Garden

South across town on the tiny island of Slotsholmen (where Bishop Absalon built Copenhagen's first castle in 1167), the current Christiansborg Palace is the third palace on the site. With a combined palace ticket you can tour the Royal Reception Rooms (including the Great Hall hung with Queen Margrethe II's lively modern historical woven hangings designed by Bjørn Nørgaard), the 12th-century stone ruins of Absalon's Castle directly underneath the palace entrance, the marble Royal Stables with white Kladruber carriage horses, and the gleaming copper pots of the Royal Kitchen. Even without a ticket, take the lift up Tårnet (The Tower), the highest spire in Copenhagen at 106 metres, which offers a free public viewing deck, and stroll through the tranquil Royal Library Garden (Det Kongelige Biblioteks Have) hidden behind the palace.