Castles | Not Vikings 2

After waking up a little later than we (I) intended, we got ourselves together and headed out in a new direction - away from the city. But first, we stopped at the Meany grocery store, which was not mean at all and would give Whole Foods a run for their money. Opting for snaegles (a pastry), they were consumed before we reached the end of the block. Yum. We hopped on the F train toward Hillerup, and easily transferred trains to Hillerod and Frederiksborg Castle. The trip had - once again - been so easy (thank you Copenhagen Cards and Danish public transportation!)

It had been a long time since I’d seen a REAL castle, and I couldn’t wait to see how my compatriots would react to seeing this one. And yes, we’d seen a palace or two the day before on our stroll through the city - but those weren’t quite the fairytale variety that Frederiksborg promised to be.

By the time we reached the castle, I was practically giggling with excitement, which mostly garnered serious side-eye from the teenager. She’s been to Versailles, so this castle had a lot to live up to. It did not disappoint.

There were moats and bridges - three of them! And spires, gargoyles and statues, fountains and ducks. It was all very regal. Lots of gilded things. I was more enchanted than I really ought to have been, but all of this was so fun! I found myself smiling and bouncing around uncontrollably. I took pictures of very random things because everything looked cool (my out of focus random pictures have mostly been edited out). Thankfully, my giddiness was catching.

After crossing over the first bridge, and walking through the stables and former shops, we crossed over the second bridge and into the main courtyard.

Once inside, I had to promise not to listen to the two-hour audio tour (I complied), but I kept my book and found a new shorter digital guide (sooo dangerous for this history nerd). I dropped knowledge bombs despite the fam’s protests - everything felt so cool! To me, royalty equates with ostentatiousness, and Frederiksborg castle did this in spades. While Danes are known for their egalitarianism, the chapel, just the chapel ceiling begs to differ. Gilded ornate detail everywhere. I guess it helps when you decide during the reformation that the crown will be the head of the church and you take over all of the formerly Catholic churches - including presumably, all of the tithes. I kept imagining that the King just looked around and said “and this is mine, and this is mine…”. One consolation to the masses: the chapel still holds services (Lutheran, naturally) every Sunday and they have regular congregation from nearby town of Hillerod. At least someone gets to enjoy all of the majesty on the regular!

In 1859, the castle burned, and the royal family ditched it. They had a bit of an issue with cleaning the chimneys, which was ultimately the cause of the fire; the same thing had caused the fire at the Kronborg Castle 230 years before which led to the construction of this castle as a replacement. Fortunately, the chapel never burned. J.C. Jacobsen and the Carlsberg foundation, of brewing fame, successfully pushed for and ultimately, paid for the castle to be restored as the Museum of National History after the fire, and we all now benefit.

The castle was built during Christian IV reign, and his initials C4 can be seen everywhere - including back in Copenhagen. The roof style that is seen here is the same one that is also all over Copenhagen, especially in places like Nyhaven.

As we progressed through the rooms of the castle, each room was filled with portraits throughout Danish history - ending on the top floor with pictures of closer-to-Modern day Danes like one of the founder of the global shipping company Maersk. In many ways, this transition through time would mirror a series of portraits we’d see later in the day when we went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern art.

With our romp through the palace completed, we needed to eat. We found the pedestrian street (the Stroget concept was adopted everywhere), where we found Café Gonzalez which had a promising menu, and by promising, that meant Italian. I had a salad with chicken and a curry dressing and @mini.turbodb and Dan each had chicken sandwiches that involved both Ketchup and avocados. Satiated, we headed to the train and our next stop: Kronborg Castle.

Unlike Frederiksborg castle, which was built after the renaissance in 1639, Kronborg castle, was a true medieval castle. But like the Frederiksborg castle, it had mostly been rebuilt (still, it was cool to me!). Kronborg castle was a short train ride away in the town of Helsingor, and was the mythical sight of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, so they kindly left a skull for dramatic reenactments in the courtyard, should anyone feel inspired. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

As we crossed a moat, then another moat (they are serious about their moats and bridges here), it was clear that this castle meant business. Not nearly as showy, Kronborg seemed more strategic - it is right at the nubbin that sticks out from Denmark that is closest to Sweden. We could really tell just how close we were after we mounted the rampart on the seaward side lined with canons all pointed at Sweden. Sweden looked as far away as Hoboken does from New York, or Bellevue from Seattle, but closer than Oakland from SF. While the sign clearly said “Bastion,” all three of us had misread it to say “Bastard” which had us in stitches when there were only canons to be found.

Part of how the Danes became very wealthy, besides being a part of the slave trade, was taxing every ship that came into Oresund strait. But when the castle burned, the royals moved out (to Frederiksborg) leaving the castle as a tax collection post and a military training ground, which was used up until and during World War II.

Having successfully castled ourselves out (is that possible?) it was time for some gelato (lemon for me, stracatella for @mini.turbodb, and a double cone of chocolate and blueberry for @turbodb) - delicious - and time to head to a completely different kind of place - a museum of modern art.

 

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