Danish Museum Highlights

We did lots of museums and castles while in Denmark, most just outside of Copenhagen. We went up the coast of Denmark to Helsingør-- the city of Castle Kronborg, what we know it better as Hamlet's Castle. Hamlet was not a real prince of Denmark, but Shakespeare would have known about the castle because of it was famous for extracting money from the ships passing by.

Castle Kronborg, with a model in the foreground

The medieval castle was built by Frederik II in 1574-85 and rebuilt in 1637 after it was burnt.  The castle guarded the opening at the waters of Øresund, where ships passed with goods.  The "guns of Kronborg" watched each vessel and required the captain to pay "sound dues"-- money to pass through the sound.  These sound dues became a goldmine for the Danish kings right up until 1857, when the dues were abolished when the European coutries got together to make one huge pay off (I think it was something like 67,000,000,000 Krona). Income from the dues was used among other things to rebuild the medieval Kronborg into a renaissance castle after it burned.

By the 18th century, the castle was becoming more of a military outpost and, at one point, a prison.  Kronborg has beautiful views of the sound and out to Sweden, but inside, the castle was pretty bland: not a lot of furniture and white-washed walls.  Nothing like our favorite castle, Frederiksborg Slot(more on that one in another post).

me in a guard booth

Portrait of Shakespeare

courtyard

Four-Gate Courtyard

looking out toward the sound

I went also to Fredensborg Slot, a castle built for hunting in 1719-22 by Frederik IV.  The current Royal Couple uses the castle three months in the spring and three months in the fall, and the current crown prince and his family live there.  Because of that, you can only walk around the grounds: 120 hectares of wooded paths, open fields, and the Norwegian Valley, or "Normandsdalen". 

Fredensborg Palace

Danish lion guarding the palace

wooded path down to Lake Esrum

Normandsdalen is an amphitheater-like valley with 68 sandstone statues that depict the common folk of Norway and the Faroe Island. In the middle of the 18th century, Denmark and Norway were still united.  A Norwegian mailman had a hobby of craving the locals into dolls and dressing them in folk costumes.  He sent the dolls to become part of the Royal Collection of Curiosities in Copenhagen.  The dolls were noticed by the king and the mailman, Jørgen Christensen Garnass, was granted an audience with King Frederic V, who commissioned Garnass to re-carve the dolls in ivory.  Those ivory figures then became the basis for larger statues that were placed in an old gravel pit on the grounds of Fredensborg for the Dowager Quen Juliane Marie in 1773.  It was finally finished with the 68 statues (60 Norwegians and 10 Faeroese) in 1784.

Fishermen and peasants stand, wearing traditional clothing and craved into traditional poses.  The sculptures capture everyday life: there is the fisherman, the bride & groom, the wife bringing lunch to her husband.  The statues have deteriorated over the years and have slowly been redone-- I think, in fact, that all of them had been replaced with a replica made of harder stone.    

statues

statues with a gazebo

young girl and farm hand

 
Another museum in Copenhagen that Will and I both visited was the excellent NY Carlsberg Glyptotek.  Founded by Carl Jacobsen, the Danish brewer of Carlsberg beer, the museum was named after his beer.  The museum was completed in 1906 and has two buildings that are connected with the Winter Garden, a beautiful interior garden with palm trees, fountains, and sub-tropical plants.


Jacobson was interested in more than just beer; he is one of Denmark's greatest art patrons. He collected items from the ancient Mediterranean world to works of some of the greatest French Impressionists : Gaugin, Monet, Van Gogh, Rodin, and Degas. 

NY Carlsberg Glyptotek

Winter Garden

King Ramses II and the God Ptah

Greek and Roman sculpture

The Thinker

 Jacobson was a great supporter of Rodin and acquired a lot of the French sculptor's work.  He ordered the sculpture in 1900 and it was sent to Copenhagen in August 1901. Two were actually ordered, one small and one large.  The second Thinker was sent to Copenhagen by 1906.  (I forget which was one was sent first...)

The Burghers of Calais

hallway of the museum

Degas's Dancer

Pharaoh Will

Egyptian Goddess Miriam

We also went to Roskilde, about 30 km west of Copenhagen, to see the Viking Museum--the "Vikingeskibmuseet".  The remains of five ships are the center of the museum.  These ships were deliberately sunk in two of the channels in the water on Roskilde Fjord sometime between AD 1000-1050--most likely to prevent an attack as it was a time when Norwegian Viking raids were quite frequent and fierce.  The remains were found in the 1950s and have undergone extensive preservation methods in order to be displayed.  One reason it is so significant of a find is that all the boats discovered were different kinds, allowing researchers to understand more of the Viking way of life.

long ship, with a model of what it would have looked like with raised sail

inside of the long ship

a trading ship

Granted, what you see is very little.  Most of the boats, ranging from long ships to small fishing boats, are in so many pieces that there is more iron holding them together.  But, conservators and woodworkers have recreated one of the long boats in the Viking ways and then sailed up the fjord, around the tip of Denmark, around Scotland, and arriving in Dublin.  The return trip (a year later) went through the English Channel and around the coast of Belgium.  Something like 60 rowers, 550+ hours at sea, and several weeks-- all to recreate the travels of the Vikings.  There was a movie that showed the experience.  Pretty intense, crazy, and impressive.  Plus, you can dress up like a Viking!  Who can beat that?

the boat that sailed from Roskilde to Dublin and back

I'm a Viking and I'm okay!

sitting in a replica of a long ship-- used for attacks