Kronborg Castle

Helsingør Municipality, Denmark

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

Find out more

Kronborg Castle stands on the northeastern tip of Zealand at Helsingør, Denmark, commanding the narrowest point of the Øresund strait—a strategic position guarding one of the few outlets to the Baltic Sea. Built originally as the stronghold Krogen by King Eric VII in the 1420s, the castle was radically transformed between 1574 and 1585 by King Frederick II into a magnificent Renaissance fortress, one of the most important of its kind in Northern Europe. The Flemish architects Hans Hendrik van Paesschen and Anthonis van Obbergen oversaw the reconstruction, with sculptural work coordinated by Gert van Groningen. A fire in 1629 destroyed much of the structure, but King Christian IV had it rebuilt; the castle contains a church within its walls. After Swedish capture in 1658 stripped it of art treasures, Kronborg served as Army barracks from 1785 until 1923. Following renovation, it opened to the public and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000. The castle is immortalized in Shakespeare's *Hamlet* as Elsinore.

Type: palace, castle, museum
Heritage: monument on Kulturstyrelsen register, World Heritage Site
Place: Helsingør Municipality, Denmark

This building on

Architecturally similar

Location

56.03861, 12.62194