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Resourceful and loved

The sculptor H. W. Bissens (1798-1868) scheme for the decoration of the Queen’s Staircase at Christiansborg was approved in 1839. Included in the scheme were 18 particularly admirable female figures from ancient Greece and Nordic history. Amongst them were the four Danish Queens: Thyra, Dagmar, Margrethe I and Filippa. Bissen described Queen Thyra with the words resourceful and loved. The ornamentation was finished in 1859 and was greatly praised at the time. However, the statues did not stand there long. They were saved from the fire at Christiansborg in 1884 and after restoration bought by Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.

Today the statue of Queen Thyra can be seen at Royal Jelling.

Queen Thyra Danebod. Plaster statue by H. W. Bissen (1853) for The Queen’s Staircase in architect C. F. Hansen’s Christiansborg. Photo: Jesper Stub Johnsen.