Isabella's new playhouse

Photos © Steen Brogaard/Jyllands Posten/SogH and Billed Bladet

The promised Marselisborg Palace replica playhouse from Århus Kommune as a christening gift for Princess Isabella has been delivered and installed in the garden at Chancellory House at Fredensborg. The copy of Marselisborg Castle, which is the Regent's summer residence, has a size ratio of 1:10 (3.8 m. X 1.7 m. and 1.85 m. high). The playhouse is made of ecologically sound materials. The entrance is between the two towers and the roof can be opened up so that grown-ups can get in more easily. The playhouse has been designed by architect Alice Rosborg, the city architect of Århus Kommune.



Jyllands Posten 'Prinsesse Isabella i sit nye legeslot' - Princess Isabella in her new play castle
A small piece of Århus is in place in Fredensborg with Århus Kommune's present for Princess Isabella. Århus Mayor Nicolai Wammen yesterday officially delivered Århus Kommune's christening gift for Princess Isabella, a playhouse, or more correctly a play castle, in the garden at Kancellihuset in Fredensborg.
The house is a 3.8 meter copy of Marselisborg Palace on a scale of 1:10 and stands ready to move in with the flag hoisted on a flagpole on the roof after it was mounted on a base in the garden.
The present was really ready for delivery on Princess Isabella's first birthday on April 21st, but only now has the transfer fitted into the royal family's programme.
Mayor Nicolai Wammen said, "It was a lovely experience to see the little Princess Isabella and big brother Prince Christian play inside the castle, which is incredibly beautiful. I feel certain that both children and the adults in the royal family will have many good times in and around the play castle, which resembles Marselisborg Palace exactly."
"On the town's behalf it's my hope that the gift will further strengthen the strong ties between the royal house and Århus - so both Princess Isabella and Prince Christian grow up with strong connections to the town in the same way as their parents and grandparents."
Three months' work
The playhouse was made over a three month period at the special factory Aarhus Model Technic (A-M-T) in Lystrup.
It is there that the 32-year-old pattern maker Kasper Riis Jørgensen has especially worked on the unusual project.
He has had workshop drawings resting on architect Hack Kampmann's original drawings of Marselisborg Slot dated June 1900.
Delivered unfurnished
It now is up to the Crown Prince and Crown Princess to endow the playhouse with furniture.
The playhouse is weatherproof and built to stand outdoors for decades and it's built with mahogany veneered materials.
The many windows in the playhouse are made of plastic and the black roof is also of a material which is durable in all kinds of precipitation.
Name frieze
A frieze around the playhouse is made up of letters in plastic forming the the princess' name - Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe.
Århus Kommune has paid for 65.000 DKK of the 165.000 DKK that the playhouse cost. The rest has been paid Erhverv Århus and the tourist organisation Visit Århus. (by Else Boelskifte and Kay Rasmussen)