A fortress called Krogen rose here in the 1420s under Eric of Pomerania, to enforce the Sound Dues on ships passing the Øresund. From 1574 to 1585 Frederick II had it transformed into a Renaissance castle, with the Flemish architects Hans Hendrik van Paesschen and Anthonis van Obbergen leading the work. The Ballroom, 203 by 39 feet (62 by 12 m), was the largest hall in Northern Europe when finished in 1582.
A fire on the night of September 24 and 25, 1629, destroyed much of the castle, though the chapel survived. Christian IV ordered a rebuilding under Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger, begun in 1631. The exterior was largely unchanged by 1639, and some interiors became Baroque.
Sweden took the castle in 1658. The army left in 1923, and the castle opened to the public in 1938. Shakespeare set Hamlet here, calling it Elsinore, and UNESCO listed it in 2000.
Comments