[Photo from visitcopenhagen.com]

Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, north of Copenhagen, is one of northern Europe's finest Renaissance castles. It is located at the entrance to Oreound and was built in 1574-1585.

Kronborg Castle is probably the most famous Danish castle, known worldwide from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlet's spirit is still roaming the hallways of Kronborg, and every summer you can experience Hamlet Scenen perform Hamlet on an open air stage in the courtyard.

Frederik Ⅱ's Kronborg is at once an elegant castle and a monumental military fortress surrounded by considerable fortifications with bastions and ravelins. It has not been inhabited by the royal family since the late 1600's.

The castle houses collections of Renaissance and Baroque interiors, and among the main attractions is the 62-metre ballroom, the very well-preserved chapel and the mythologiacal statue of Holger Danske in Kasematterne below the castle.

Queen Caroline Mathilde under house arrest

In 1772 Kronborg Castle played a minor role in the fatal drama between the insane King Christian Ⅶ, his wife Queen Caroline Mathilde and her secret lover Johan Friedrich Struensee.

After the arrest of Struensee in Copenhagen January 17, 1772, Caroline Mathilde was taken to Kronborg Castle, where she was under house arrest for a period of time. Her fate was long uncertain.

She was accused of infidelity, and although her defender Peter Uldall did what he could, she was convicted, divorced from the king and banished to the town of Celle in northern Germany. She never saw her children again and died a few years later of an epidemic.

From 1785-1923 Kronborg Castle was inhabited by the Danish military. The castle was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2000.