Kronborg

Why it is renowned

Kronborg is Elsinore, the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and one of the most important Renaissance castles in Northern Europe; it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.¹ Hamlet was first staged there in 1816, and Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Christopher Plummer, Derek Jacobi, David Tennant and Jude Law have since played the prince at the castle.¹ It is part of the National Museum of Denmark and still stages Hamlet in the summer.²

The story

Eric of Pomerania built a fortress, Krogen, on the spot in the 1420s to collect the Sound dues from ships entering and leaving the Baltic.¹ Frederick II had it rebuilt as a Renaissance castle between 1574 and 1585 by the Flemish architects Hans Hendrik van Paesschen and Anthonis van Obbergen, and named it Kronborg.¹ After a fire in 1629 Christian IV rebuilt it; the Swedes took it in 1658, and from 1785 to 1923 it served as army barracks before it was restored and opened to the public.¹

What to know it by

• Hamlet at Kronborg1816Shakespeare's play, staged at the castle since 1816
• The casematesUnderground passages where Holger the Dane sits
• The castle churchChapel within the walls