Kronborg Castle at Elsinore!

That's right, the same Castle at Elsinore that is spoken of in Shakespeare's Hamlet!

And here it is!

We had the day off yesterday and decided to go see a castle...crazy to say that, isn't it! It was a wonderful adventure! I paid about 14 Euro to go in and have a tour of the castle. We got a guided tour of the Casements (the partially-underground bunker-like corridors which could house 2000 soldiers for up to four months during a time of siege.) As well as a guided tour of the Royal chambers. We also got to look at the castle chapel, and the museum of maritime development. All in all, we spent most of the afternoon exploring and learning about the castle.

We found out that one of the suspected reasons for Shakespeare choosing this castle for his Hamlet story, aside from the fact that it was the Danish royal residence at the time Hamlet was written, was that one of Shakespeare's friends was a court jester in the court at Kronborg Castle and came back home to England to tell Shakespeare of all the court customs and the layout of the castle et cetera! Based on this detailed knowledge, Shakespeare was able to craft a play about a country and even a specific castle where he himself had never set foot. One of the particular details that I found interesting was the custom of the King paying dinner guests if they were able to kill a rat if one ran across the floor during a meal. Shakespeare incorporated this in his line: "How now, a rat, dead for a ducat, dead!"

The castle has a moat! How cool is that? ;)

A little hole in the wall - quite literally!

The castle was first built in 1420 and was completely re-built, over the original structure, when, in 1570, the king at the time (see below) got married and wanted a modern castle for his new 14 year old bride (he was 38 at the time!) This is a portion of the original wall which can still be seen in a part of the casements.


Frederik II, who rebuilt the Kronborg castle for his young wife.

Holger Danske: the sleeping hero of Denmark. As the legend goes, Holger was given immortality by a fairy at birth. He went and fought in foreign lands defending Denmark for 400 years. Then he came home to Kronborg where he sat down to rest. He fell asleep, but before he did, he vowed that if ever Denmark was in serious danger again, he would wake and defend her. So, here he sits and sleeps as Denmark is still quite safe!

Also in the casements, were cells for keeping prisoners taken during a siege. They were in the corners of the casements and hence came to a point. It is believed that prisoners who were less-liked were moved further and further into the corner until they had barely enough room to turn about. All the bars are now gone, but you can still see the places where they were secured in the ceiling and floor. Here are Nichole and Amy in the furthest reaches of the cell! They fit alright :D

This is one of the the arrow slits in the casements. These had to be manned at all times, and there was a severe physical punishment for a soldier falling asleep at his watch.

This is upstairs in the royal quarters (which weren't very big for such a large castle, but with reason, as the rooms got quite cold, and smaller rooms were easier to keep warm by fire than larger ones.) The king had a lovely view of the straight between present day Denmark and Sweden (at various times during this castle's existence, the Swedish side has belonged to both countries, and, for a two year period, the castle belonged to Sweden. After those two years, a treaty was signed giving back the castle and surrounding land to Denmark, but assuring that all the land across the straight would belong to Sweden.) The king could also see ships sailing past (they were required to lower their flag half mast and also to pay a tax. If the ship failed to lower its flag, the king would shoot off a cannon and charge the ship captain not only the tax, but also the cost of the gun powder and cannon ball!)

Part of the wall near the main entrance gate which was opened recently (over 200 years ago!) Prior to the opening of the main gate, one had to enter the castle through an underground tunnel entrance.

One of the many beautiful views from the extravagant dining room. There were large fireplaces at each end of the 60M (65.5 yd) long room, but because the fireplaces let most of the heat out through the chimneys, the guests seated at the center of the table must eat their soup quite quickly in winter to be sure it didn't freeze over!

This is King Christian IV: the one responsible for much of the modernization in the castle. His father (Frederik II) built the new castle (in 1570) but only lived a few years after its completion. Christian IV was the longest reigning king of Denmark with a reign of 60 years (1588-1648.) He is pictured here near the end of his life in a silk tapestry woven with gold and silver. The tour guide pointed out how tired he looked, but also how he was quite rotund. The king and queen had 8 kilos (more than 17.5 lbs) of meat reserved for each of them at every meal! Normal meals would have 12 courses, but on special occasions, or upon the entertaining of guests, as many as 24 courses would be served. Christian was known for his extravagant spending, and would regularly serve exotic fruits at meals. The price of a lemon (were we to calculate it in today's market) would be about 5000 DKK (just over $1000!) It was also a common practice at meals to have a servant bring a silver bowl and towel to guests so they could "relieve" themselves if they felt too full to continue the meal! At the end of meals with guests, the king would often have fireworks shot off outside the dining room windows. The force of the blast would shatter the glass - again demonstrating the wealth of the kingdom, as glass was quite expensive to replace in those days!

One of the views from the queen's chambers.

After relinquishing the land across the straight, the king had to move from Kronborg castle (to Copenhagen, where the royals are still housed) as Kronborg was now directly on the boarder of Sweden. After the royal family moved out, the castle became a permanent residence for soldiers. It even housed Nazi soldiers during the German invasion of WWII. While the castle itself was not used for housing soldiers after that time, until 1991, the castle grounds buildings still housed Danish soldiers! Only recently has this castle become a memorial open to the public! We were so fortunate to have been able to see it!

The castle chapel entrance.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictorial look at the Kronborg Castle! "The rest is silence."