Since then and until recently, it was used by the Danish Emergency Management Agency as an academy for non-commissioned officers, but it has now opened as a hotel and conference centre.

The palace was designed by the French architect Nicolas-Henri Jardin, who had been brought to Denmark to complete Frederick's Church in Copenhagen after the death of Nicolai Eigtved in 1754.

The next year, he sold it for 280,000 rigsdaler to royal president, later gehejmestats- og justitsminister Frederik Julius Kaas.

In 1817, Kaas sold Bernstorff Palace to Christopher MacEvoy Jr., a wealthy plantation owner from the Danish West Indies, who shortly thereafter also bought the Dehn Mansion in Copenhagen.

Most of the land remained in the hands of the Bernstorff family until 1839 when it was sold to krigsassessor Peter Hilarius Ferdinand Kalko.

The Bernstorff Palace was about to be demolished in 1842 when Christian VIII bought it and charged Jørgen Hansen Koch with its comprehensive renovation.

A sign above the entrance reads: "Honesto inter labores otio sacrum" or "Reserved for honest rest between periods of work."

On 1 May 2009, after an agreement with Gitte Jensen and Kirsten Nielsen, Bernstorff Palace opened as a hotel and conference centre.

He charged Rudolph Rothe, the royal garden inspector, to replace them with Danish oak and beech which can still be seen today.