Enfilade

From Strandberg Publishing:

Peter Thule Kristensen, ed., with contributions by Thomas Lyngby, Else Marie Bukdahl, Martin Søberg, Sanne Maekelberg, Natalie Körner, and Nina Ventzel Riis, Lauritz de Thurah: Architecture and Worldviews in 18th-Century Denmark (Copenhagen: Strandberg Publishing, 2023), 432 pages, ISBN: 978-8794102704, £70.

Lauritz de Thurah (1706–1759) was one of Denmark’s most significant architects of the Baroque period. He created several important buildings—including the Hermitage Hunting Lodge, the Royal Palace in Roskilde, Gammel Holtegaard, and the famous spire of the Church of Our Saviour in Copenhagen—and masterminded conversions and extensions of properties such as Ledreborg, Frederiksberg Castle, Børglum Kloster, and the now demolished summer residence Hirschholm Palace (widely known as the ‘Versailles of the North’). The mainstay of this monograph is Peter Thule Kristensen’s presentation of Thurah’s rich and complex architecture. The other chapters—written by experts Else Marie Bukdahl, Martin Søberg, Thomas Lyngby, Natalie Patricia Körner, Sanne Maekelberg, and Nina Ventzel Riis—describe Thurah’s roles as a leading architectural historian, topographer, grand tour traveller, civil servant, military man, and trailblazer within the new social structure in Denmark under absolute rule. The book also sheds light on the Baroque period in a broader sense, delving into the era’s court culture, garden design, and church architecture. Finally, the afterlife of Thurah’s works is addressed: how do his buildings function in our present day, having been adapted to the needs and users of a new era?

Peter Thule Kristensen is Professor, Head of the Master Programme Spatial Design at the Royal Danish Academy – Institute of Architecture and Design and a Core Scholar at the Centre for Privacy Studies at University of Copenhagen. He is M.Arch. from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture (1994), Ph.D. in architectural history from the same institution (2014), and dr.phil. in art history from Aarhus University (2014).