Kronborg

When visitors today approach Kronborg they experience the castle from a distance as a magical totality of ramparts, walls, towers and spires. Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet has imprinted ‘the castle in Elsinore’ – Helsingør with its castle Kronborg – in the consciousness of the world. And the castle is of immense symbolic value to the Danish people and played a key role in the history of northern Europe in the 16th-18th centuries. In Shakespeare’s play the castle is the setting for the tragic events where the Danish Prince Hamlet avenges the murder of his father and sets off an avalanche of death and destruction. Though the historical truth is that there probably never lived a Danish prince named Hamlet, it does, however, tell us something important about the fame of Kronborg that Shakespeare chose to set the action of his tragedy there. Around 1600 Helsingør and the castle of Kronborg were a Danish locality that were known all over Europe. Poul Grinder-Hansen’s book opens up the story of Kronborg, the impressive history and architecture of a castle build to impress – a manifestation of power and magnificence.

When visitors today approach Kronborg they experience the castle from a distance as a magical totality of ramparts, walls, towers and spires. Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet has imprinted ‘the castle in Elsinore’ – Helsingør with its castle Kronborg – in the consciousness of the world. And the castle is of immense symbolic value to the Danish people and played a key role in the history of northern Europe in the 16th-18th centuries. In Shakespeare’s play the castle is the setting for the tragic events where the Danish Prince Hamlet avenges the murder of his father and sets off an avalanche of death and destruction. Though the historical truth is that there probably never lived a Danish prince named Hamlet, it does, however, tell us something important about the fame of Kronborg that Shakespeare chose to set the action of his tragedy there. Around 1600 Helsingør and the castle of Kronborg were a Danish locality that were known all over Europe. Poul Grinder-Hansen’s book opens up the story of Kronborg, the impressive history and architecture of a castle build to impress – a manifestation of power and magnificence.

Kronborg har siden 1500-tallet været brugt som bolig for kongen og til forsvar af Danmark, når landet var i krig. I dag er der fredeligt på Kronborg, men nede i slottets kælder sover Holger Danske, som er klar til kamp, hvis Danmarks frihed bliver truet! Opgaver på: fagbog.gylddendal.dk

Et pragtværk om Kronborg Slot. Bogen er fortællingen om slottets 600 år – en bygning, der er skabt til at imponere og gennem sin brogede historie har været en manifestation af magt og pragt. Med hvidgule sandstensmure, himmelstræbende kobberspir i rødbrunt og grønt og teglstensklædte røde bastioner blev det bygget ved indgangen til Østersøen som en respektindgydende hilsen til alle, der kom sejlende på Øresund og skulle vide, at den danske konge beherskede området. Bogen rummer fortællingen om fæstningen og slottet, om ødelæggelse, krige og genopbygninger, om de mennesker, der har boet, arbejdet, kæmpet og lidt i det gamle slot. Den rigt illustrerede fortælling giver slottets mure og mennesker liv – fra middelalderens tunge borg over renæssanceslottets manifestation af magt og pragt under Frederik 2. og Christian 4. til nutidens fascinerende seværdighed, hvor ikke kun renæssancekonger, men også Holger Danske og Hamlet huserer.