Our backyard, Jægersborg Dyrehave, is a natural area of about 1,100 hectares, which borders Jægersborg Hegn and the idyllic Raadvad to the north. The main attraction and highlight of the park is the 2,000 deer roaming freely. At the heart of Dyrehaven stands the magnificent Hermitage Palace, designed by the architect de Thurah for King Christian VI. The Parforce hunting landscape in Dyrehaven, dating back to the Baroque period, is truly unique.

The word parforce means “by force” and refers to a style of hunting practiced in 17th-century England and France. In 1660, the then-future Crown Prince Christian V went on a grand tour of Europe and encountered this hunting style for the first time. He was directly encouraged by the French king to introduce this method of hunting in Denmark. At the time, parforce hunting was considered the most noble and prestigious form of hunting—fit for an absolute monarch. It wasn’t only entertaining for the king; it was also staged in a way that placed him at the center, allowing him to decide over life and death.

The Danish parforce hunting landscape is distinctive in its design, drawing inspiration from both the English and French styles. In Dyrehaven, it is the English style that dominates. Here, parforce hunts were conducted freely through the landscape rather than being guided by a strict network of roads and trails. If you visit Gribskov or Store Dyrehave, you’ll find the hunting grounds established around Hillerød and Frederiksborg Castle, which King Christian V built later. In these areas, the French parforce style dominates, marked by straight roads and star-shaped crossroads.

Parforce hunting was done on horseback, using packs of hounds to track and exhaust the game. The different packs of hounds would take turns at the star-shaped intersections—parforce hunting could last for hours, and the straight hunting roads made it easier to keep track of where the game and hounds were in the landscape. Once the animal was sufficiently exhausted, the king was summoned to deliver the final blow with a special knife called a hirschfænger. This was a dramatic and ceremonial moment for the hunting party. The meat of the animal, saturated with lactic acid and inedible, was usually given to the dogs as a reward for their work