The original Baroque garden  The parterre in front of the palace in 1718

Frederiksberg Gardens was established by King Frederik IV in connection with the construction of Frederiksberg Palace as his new summer retreat on high grounds atop Valby Hill. Work on the project began in the last half of the 1690s with inspiration from Italy and France which Frederick, at that time still Crown Prince, had visited on several occasions. He commissioned the eminent Swedish architect Nicodemus Tessin to draw a proposal and the final plan was subsequently made by Hans Heinrich Scheel, a captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers.[1]

 Plan of the park in 1760

The plan involved a parterre with a complex system of cascades on the sloping terrain in front of the new palace. It was fed by a complicated but inefficient system of pumps which never came to work properly.[1]

In the end, Johan Cornelius Krieger, who was at the time also working on an extension and adaption of Fredensborg Palace, north of Copenhagen, was called upon to redesign the parterre. Unusually of the time, he gave up the parterre completely and instead transformed the slope into a series of terraces.[1]

The Romantic garden  Plan by P. Petersen from 1795 of the Romantic landscape garden The garden c. 1801

In the 1790s, as fashion changed, the park was adapted into an English landscape garden. P. Petersen created a new garden plan in 1795. He created a typical English-style landscape garden with winding lawns, lakes, canals and spinneys as well as grottos, temples, pavilions and summerhouses. The final result may well have been based on Johan Ludwig Mansa's book on English-style gardening written in 1798.

Frederik VI was particularly fond of the garden. From 1804, he sailed the canals in a gondola. It was later moved to Frederiksborg Castle and Lake Esrum.

 The Smørrebrød Lawn, with Kavalergården in the background. Illustration from Illustreret Tidende, 18 Skaters painted in the park by Paul Gauguin in 1885, the same year the public was given unrestricted access to the park.

Though a palace park, the general public had access to the grounds but sailors, dogs and people in poor clothing or carrying large bundles were turned away by the guard at the park's sole entrance. Not until 1865 did access to the park become unrestricted,[2] in line with what was the case elsewhere in the city, such as at Langelinie. Smørrebrødsplænen (Smørrebrød Lawn), on the corner of Roskildevej and Pile Allé, where K. B.'s tennis halls are today, became a popular picnic destination for families.