One of the reasons for Thorvaldsens Museum being built on Slotsholmen in Copenhagen was that the first Christiansborg Palace burned down in 1794. Until then, the palace with its riding ground and chapel – as seen in this copperplate engraving – had been the royal family’s residence for half a century. After the fire, and on the same site, the architect C.F. Hansen (1756-1845) built the second Christiansborg – which was subsequently also destroyed by fire – in addition to the still existing Palace Chapel. It was only a short time after Thorvaldsen’s final return to Copenhagen that Frederik VI made an oral promise that a site would be made available for the building of Thorvaldsens Museum. This was effected on 30 December 1838. The site can be seen here, where the U-shaped Royal Coach Shed can be seen up in the left of the print. One of the challenges for the museum architect, Gottlieb Bindesbøll (1800-56) was that the museum had to be built on the already existing wooden foundations of the coach shed and therefore had to be limited to standing exactly within the framework of the existing foundation.
