Drengen med svanen
Drengen med svanen is a fountain in the centre of Kongens Have, Copenhagen’s historic royal garden. Hermann Ernst Freund created the sculpture in 1837, showing a boy beside a swan above the water. Two tree-lined avenues meet around it, preserving the garden’s baroque layout and central position.
Kongens Have began around 1606, when construction started on Rosenborg Castle and the grounds supplied fruit, vegetables, and flowers. Johan Cornelius Krieger redesigned the garden in the early eighteenth century, adding the avenues that still frame the fountain. Today, lawns, perennial flower beds, sculptures, playgrounds, sports areas, and a puppet theatre fill the former royal kitchen garden.
Other works include Peter Husum’s horse and lion, Thomas Brock’s 1881 sculpture of a fight with a snake, and August Saabye’s 1875 Hans Christian Andersen. Rosenborg Castle stands beyond a water feature, while the old orangery houses a restaurant and the Hercules Pavilion contains a café. Against this layered setting, the boy and swan remain the garden’s focal sculpture.
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