Johan Conrad Ernst

He was the son of Johan Adolf Ernst, a successful linen merchant who had immigrated from Nuremberg and had a luxurious residence on Amagertorv in Copenhagen.

[1] Little is known of his childhood or education but the Swedish architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger commented that the young man was sophisticated, sociable and widely traveled.

[2] In 1696, as royal master builder, he was sent to Stockholm to assist Tessin in completing a wooden model and plans for a new residential palace for Christian V. The King intended to have it built on the Amalienborg site but nothing came of the venture.

The following year, under instructions from the master builder general, Vilhelm Platens (1667–1732), Ernst became responsible for extending the recently built Frederiksberg Palace (1708–1709).

From 1718 to 1721, he converted the opera house to a training school for cadets[4] and, for a time, coordinated the construction of Fredensborg Palace.