Borgs, Borgs and more Borgs - Danish Castle Day 21-Feb-16 - Part 2 - Kronborg Outside

Our first stop was Kronborg Castle near Helsingør in Denmark.  It is mostly famous for being the Elsinore (The anglicized version of Helsingør) castle in William Shakespeare's Hamlet.  It is on the UNESCO World Heritage List and is also the home of Holger the Dane.

===============================
History (Skip to the ===== to just read about our trip)
A castle at Kronborg was built in the 1420s on the Northern tip of the Danish Island of Zealand where the Øresund (The sound between Sweden and Denmark) is narrowest, so it was highly important in the battle between Sweden and Denmark for control of the outlet into the Baltic Sea.

Krogen (The Hook) was the first castle in the location (Built in the 1420 by King Eric VII)

A 1:500 scale model of Krogen (1420)

It was located across the sound from the Danish fortress of Kärnan (see our Helsingborg trip) and together allowed the Danes to control the outlet into the Baltic.   It was built up between 1574-1585 by King Frederick II into a Renaissance castle:

1:500 scale model of Kronborg (1585)

In 1629 workmen accidentally set the castle on fire and only the chapel was saved.  King Christian IV ordered the castle restored.  The castle was attacked and captured in 1658 by a Swedish army led by Carl Gustaf Wrangel.  Most of the art works, sculptures and fountains were taken to Sweden as spoils of war.

Once the Swedes left (After the treaty of Roskilde, 1658) the castle was strengthened and additional ramparts were built:

1:500 scale model of Kronborg (1749)

From 1739 until the 1900s, Kronborg served as a prison with the convicts sentenced to work on the fortifications and on farming.

The castle was the setting of Hamlet and the play has been performed many times by famous actors at the castle.
===========================

We pulled up at the castle and I paid for an hours parking, we shouldn't be there too long, just enough time to take some pictures, after all we had lots of castles to see.

Our first view of Kronborg was quite impressive, it had several layers of earthworks and a large moat surrounding it.

Arriving at Kronborg

The moat and fortifications (panoramic)

The entry through the earth works.  There was a movement triggered audio that played marching soldiers and cannon fire.  It scared Cameron at least three times...

Looking across at the entrance to the next level of fortifications

The cannons are in the rest position.

The second level entrance

There was quite an impressive model of the castle in the first area:

1:100 Model of Kronborg (2012)

It was pretty detailed

Looking over the model and the Brohus (Bridge House) towards the second entrance

Heading in, the kids were quite impressed by the doors:

The gates

Inside the second area

Once we got through into the second area, there was another impressive earthwork and moat before the actual castle:

Inside the second area

The second area was filled with buildings, most selling arts and crafts, but there was also a art and sculpturing school and the area where they seemed to be working on the restorations:

Blocks from the wall for restoration

We walked around the castle and looked out over the sound where the naval battles between Denmark and Sweden were fought:

Looking out over the Sound

Then we came around to the main entrance, just to the left of where we'd come in



The designs on the walls were amazing:

The walls

It was still pretty cold, the inner moat had a thin layer of ice and it looks like even the water running down the walls was freezing up:

Ice on the walls

The pigeons found that the water chutes were a good place to get a drink:

Pigeon gets a drink

By now the castle museum had opened so we walked through the first inner fortification:

First inner fortification

and then the second and much more ornate inner one:

Second inner fortification

Second inner fortification

The museum wasn't cheap to enter, but it was worth it - see my next post of the inside of the castle.