Every design for Hillerød

Hillerød takes its name from Hildi's clearing, a patch of forest felled long ago so that someone could settle here, and for well over a century the town simply went by the name of its castle, Frederiksborg. That castle still defines the place: Frederiksborg Slot, the great Renaissance palace Christian IV raised where an older manor had stood, is now home to Det Nationalhistoriske Museum. The town around it was never formally made a market town; it grew instead on the privileges that one king after another granted it.

Hillerød sits in the centre of North Zealand, with the old royal forests of Gribskov to the north and Store Dyrehave to the south, and it is the administrative seat of Region Hovedstaden. The railway from Copenhagen brought new prosperity and made it the commercial centre for the surrounding area, and today Slotsgade and the pedestrianised Helsingørsgade are its two main shopping streets. Smaller landmarks such as Badstueslottet, the Folkemuseet museum and the Neptunfontænen fountain belong to the same story.

For anyone who grew up here, the castle is the fixed point every walk returns to. Whether you moved to Copenhagen or never left at all, Hillerød stays the town you belong to.