Marselisborg Palace, Aarhus

Marselisborg Palace, located in Aarhus, serves as a royal summer residence for the Danish royal family, primarily used by Queen Margrethe II since 1967. The palace, built between 1899 and 1902, was designed by architect Hack Kampmann on the grounds of the former Marselisborg Manor. It was gifted to Prince Christian (later King Christian X) and Duchess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin by the Danish people to celebrate their wedding. The tradition of using it as a summer residence began with them and has continued with subsequent monarchs.

The palace is surrounded by extensive parks and recreational facilities. Adjacent to the palace is the Palace Park (Slotshaven), a 32-acre park designed by L. Christian Diedrichsen in the traditional English landscape style, featuring lawns, ponds, trees, a rose garden, and a herb garden, all dotted with art sculptures. This park, along with the palace gardens, is open to the public when the royal family is not in residence.

Further enhancing the area's appeal, the Memorial Park (Mindeparken), located just outside the palace grounds, is a popular spot for leisure activities, stretching down to the coast of the Bay of Aarhus. To the south, visitors can find the Aarhus Forestry Botanical Garden and a Deer Park, part of the Marselisborg Forests.

The palace and its surrounding lands have deep historical roots, originally part of the Marselis estate, named after the merchant Gabriel Marselis in the 1600s. The estate's original manor house, Havreballegård, no longer exists due to fires in the early 1900s, and the current palace stands on this historic land.

Marselisborg Palace remains a property of the Kingdom of Denmark, securing its place in the heritage of future monarchs. When the royal family is in residence, the public can witness the changing of the guard ceremony at noon at the main gates, which are the sole points of entry and exit for the palace and its parks. The palace itself, however, is not open to the public.