Marienlyst Palace Today
After many years of work preserving and restoring Marienlyst Palace, a new chapter is now beginning.
The focus is shifting from restoration to life, experiences, and community, and to opening the palace even more to citizens, visitors, and future generations.
Our ambition is for Marienlyst Palace to be an open and vibrant place where historical cultural heritage is not only preserved but used, experienced, and made relevant in the present day.
A Palace to be Used
Marienlyst Palace should not be a closed monument.
It should be a place where you can return again and again to experience an exhibition, hear a lecture, take a guided tour, attend a concert or event, dine in the King's Kitchen, meet with others, or simply enjoy the palace and gardens.
We want to create a Marienlyst Palace where history, culture, food, experiences, and people meet, and where there is room for contemplation, curiosity, and shared experiences.
The palace's historic rooms should also be able to host meetings, conferences, parties, and other gatherings. In this way, various activities can help both to bring life to the palace and to secure the foundation for its future.
A Palace for More People
It is important to us that Marienlyst is perceived as a welcoming place.
A place where you don't need to be an expert in history or culture to feel at home. Where you can drop by for a cup of coffee, participate in an activity, take a walk in the garden, or for the first time step inside a historic palace.
We want to create experiences that can bring people together across age, background, and interests, and make Marienlyst a natural part of life in Helsingør, while also being a special destination for visitors from outside.
Social Responsibility as Part of the Palace's Life
For us, running Marienlyst Palace also involves taking social responsibility.
We want to use the opportunities that exist in a vibrant cultural venue to create meaningful communities and real tasks for people who may need an alternative path into education, working life, or community.
This could be young people having their first encounter with a workplace, people in clarification processes, or volunteers who want to spend their time and skills on something meaningful.
In a palace, there are many different tasks: hosting, cafe, garden, events, communication, practical tasks, and much more. Common to them all is that they are real tasks in a real working community.
We believe that cultural heritage is not just about what we preserve from the past. It can also help create opportunities for people in the present.
A Sustainable Future for Marienlyst
Marienlyst Palace is owned by Helsingør Municipality and operated by S/I Marienlyst Slot, a self-governing institution.
Marienlyst Palace does not receive fixed public operating grants – neither from the state nor the municipality – and must therefore generate its own income for daily operations and the continued development of the palace through, among other things, entrance fees, the King's Kitchen, events, parties, business activities, collaborations, foundation funds, and private contributions.
This makes demands but also provides an opportunity to think innovatively.
The ambition is to develop a model where cultural heritage, experiences, business, community, and social responsibility support each other and together create an economically and humanly sustainable Marienlyst.
A New Chapter
Everything we do is based on respect for the palace's history, architecture, and unique character.
But respect for history does not mean that time should stand still.
Marienlyst Palace has changed with the times for more than 400 years. It must continue to do so in the future.
Our task is both to take care of what has been entrusted to us – and to ensure that Marienlyst continues to be meaningful for the people who come after us.
We cannot do this alone. The palace's future is created together with guests, volunteers, Friends of Marienlyst Palace, businesses, foundations, partners, and everyone who chooses to engage with the place.
A small palace can indeed hold grand visions.
And we have only just begun the next chapter.
Welcome Inside
The King's Kitchen is open to everyone – even if you are not visiting an exhibition or attending an event.
Read more about the King's Kitchen
If you would like to hear more about Marienlyst, collaborate with us, or help shape the palace's future, you are always welcome to contact us.