At the end of the Great Northern War King Frederick IV asked architect Johan Cornelius Krieger, royal gardener to the court at Rosenborg Castle, to build him a small pleasure palace on the site of a farmyard named Østrup.

Krieger built the French-inspired baroque palace 1720–1726, and the King himself took an active part in the planning of the building and grounds, and followed construction closely.

[1] While the building was still under construction Denmark–Norway and Sweden negotiated a peace treaty, which was signed on 3 July 1720, on the site of the unfinished palace.

The treaty determined the fate of Skåne, which since that time has been a part of Sweden, and ended Denmark’s eleven-year participation in the Great Northern War.

The Orangery, which was equipped with huge glasshouse windows, was connected to the main building by a small secret passage, so that the royal family and the courtiers could walk to the chapel without getting their feet wet.

In 1753 Nicolai Eigtved extended the palace by adding four symmetrically positioned corner pavilions with copper pyramid-shaped roofs to the main building.

The Queen's younger sister, Princess Benedikte, married HH Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg at the Chapel of Fredensborg Palace on 3 February 1968.

[3] Of special interest is the "Valley of the Norsemen" (Danish: Nordmandsdalen) with approximately 70 sculptures of Norwegian and Faroese farmers and fishermen, originally carved by J.G.

The area of the gardens closest to the palace is reserved for the royal family, but is usually open to the public in July.

[7] Two of the forests in the surrounding area, Gribskov and Store Dyrehave, were developed in the 1680s under King Christian V for par force hunting with a mathematically designed system of access roads.