The court next proceeded to Hirschholm for the summer. This palace, only a few miles from the capital, was the most magnificent of all the royal residences in Denmark, and has been described as the "culminating point of the luxury and magnificence that sprang up in the reign of Louis XIV." Adorned externally with all the nicest French refinements in gardening and pleasure-grounds, it dazzled the eye within by the profusion of solid silver intermingled with mother-o'-pearl and rock crystal, with which not only pictures and looking-glasses, but even the very panels of the audience-chamber, were prodigally encircled.[126] According to the "Old Chamberlain," this palace was built by Sophia Magdalena, who demolished the celebrated old castle, and erected a new palace in the middle of the lake on many thousands of piles driven into the ground, which was formed of mould brought from a long distance. A large iron gate, standing open, between high stone pillars, formed the entrance to a wide alley laid out upon a dyke, leading across the lake to the palace, which was connected with the land by this avenue only, and occupied the whole of the square island in the centre of the lake. Above two low ranges of building rose a broad Italian wing, with a flat roof in the form of a balcony, and in the middle of it a prodigious gate tower, terminating at top in a pyramid, supported by four lions couchant, and surmounted with a royal crown. Through this gateway could be seen a quadrangular court, in which a fountain, adorned with marble figures, threw up its jets. Two large pavilions, at the two extremities of the balcony wing, connected this with the side wing and inner main wing, while two bridges, one on either side of the palace, communicated with the gardens and stables. The inner wing had windows toward the palace yard, as well as toward the south side of the garden beyond the lake, which was very wide, and separated the palace from the gardens. Two narrow gravel walks, at the foot of the broad flight of stone steps, ran along the walls of the palace. In the gardens was a summer-house, which was used as a temporary theatre for the diversion of Queen Matilda and her companions; and in another part was a wooden building called a Norway house, containing landscapes in relief and imitations of rocks, with wooden cottages perched on them, and wooden roads. In the gardens were numerous fountains, and the dining-room was also remarkable for a jet d'eau and twelve fountains which spouted from the sides.[127]