There are palaces built for the crown, and palaces built for the state. Christiansborg in Copenhagen is the rare case that is both - under one roof sit the Danish parliament, the prime minister's cabinet and the Supreme Court, and in the same halls the king holds state ceremonies. When one building holds both the law and the crown, a walk through it is history and politics in a single ticket.

The story begins long ago - in 1167, when bishop Absalon raised a fortress on the little island of Slotsholmen. Since then, castles and palaces changed on the same spot until the most lavish in the kingdom was built. A great fire in 1794 drove the kings to the neighbouring Amalienborg, but Christiansborg remained the heart of state events. It was right here, recently, that Queen Margrethe II abdicated and Frederik X was proclaimed king - a generational handover carried out within these walls.

For the visitor, there's more inside than a single day can manage to see. The Throne Hall and the Velvet Room, the Great Hall with Bjørn Nørgaard's tapestries that tell a thousand years of Danish history, the royal kitchens, the medieval ruins beneath the palace, the royal stables. At the top - the tower with the highest view over Copenhagen, from which you see Rundetårn, Nyhavn and Tivoli laid out as if on a palm.

In practical terms, the palace is 15 minutes from the colourful harbour quarter of Nyhavn, the nearest metro is Gammel Strand. Entry costs around 29 euros, guided tours around 33, and if you're planning more - the three-day Royal Palace Pass of around 46 euros also covers Amalienborg and Rosenborg.

The Balkan traveller, used to seeing fortresses as ruins on a hill, gets something different here - a living building where history isn't finished, but is still being written every time parliament sits. Not a museum where the past is under glass, but a place where the past and the present share an address.