Helsingør Things to Do

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After checking Sct. Mariae Kirke we visited the Monastery of Our Lady. The monastery is large four winged building and the church is actually part of the monastery occupying one of the wings.

We were the only visitors there and we loved the small garden with the flowers and the inner yard (pics 3-4) but there was no one around to talk to or find any other information but it was nice and quiet being there for a while. We spent some moments walking inside the corridors but we left without seeing any particular room (I’m not sure if there is any of them open to the public except the church).

The monastery was founded in 1430 when King Erik of Pomeraia presented the Carmelite monks (known also as the Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel) with this site where they built their church and monastery. The first buildings were burnt in 1450 but in the following years (1450-1500) the buildings that we see today were built making it the best preserved medieval monastery in Scandinavia.

The Carmelite monks abandoned the monastery after the reformation but in 1541 was turned into a hospital for poor and sick people and kept this way for more than 3 centuries! It was restored by professor H.B.Stor in the beginning of 20th century.

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St. Olai Church is the Cathedral of Helsingor. It’s located in the city center and we visited after our visit to Monastery of Our Lady that’s 5’ away on the same street.

The church is dedicated to St Olaf, King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. The red brick church was finally completed in 1559 but there was a Romanesque church on the same spot since 1200 when Helsingor was just a small village. The spire is 68meters high and it dates from 1898 but there was an older one that was blown down by a storm in 1737.

The church became the official cathedral of Helsingor in 1961 but don’t expect to see any impressive building. There are some nice things to see inside though like the 12 meter white and golden altarpiece that dates from 1664 or the beautiful detailed font/baptistery that dates from 1578. I liked the baroque interior in general but the decoration is very simple if you have seen many other European cathedrals.

The church is open 10.00-16.00(September to april till 14.00)

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Kronborg castle (pic 1) was built in 1420 by the Danish King Erik of Pomerania. The fortified castle controlled the entrance/exit of the ships to/from Oresund. It was known as Krogen(Hook) but the renaissance castle we see today was built a century later by King Frederik II.

It’s amazing how good the castle looks but of course it was restored at the beginning of 20th century (it was under the army administration from 1785 to 1923). Before that period it was damaged several times, every war meant bombing and fire of course but the biggest fire caused by a mistake of some workmen in 1629. King Christian IV rebuilt it in 1639 but most of the inner beauty had gone forever. In 1658 Sweden conquered the castle and they added new series of ramparts and other defensive additions. The castle was also used as a prison from 1739 to 1900.

It’s one of the most important Renaissance castles and very popular among the tourists with 200,000 visitors each year that have the opportunity not only to visit the castle but also admire the view. The castle is located at picturesque corner, next to the sea. At the gallery near the entrance we saw some nice aerial photos (pic 2) that give you a good view point of it, you can see the city of Helsingor at the back side.

Even if you don’t want to pay any money (or if you are not excited) for the Royal Appartments, the Church, the casemates or the Maritime Museum (all of them are located inside the castle and have separate tickets or you pay 95DKK for a combo ticket) you can enjoy the castle for free!

You can walk around, take pictures of the castle from every corner, even going inside and check the inner yard (pic 3 is taken there). Then you can walk at the back side of the castle and enjoy the view at the beach having Sweden in front of you, take some extra pics of the castle (pic 4 is taken from the beach at the back side). I enjoyed walking at the outdoor ramparts and the paths around the castle as much as checking the museum and the Royal Apartments inside. I noticed a lot of people collecting stones and shells on the beach behind the castle while locals were there for fishing. Next to the castle many tourists were trying to capture the swans with their cameras (pic 5)

It’s an easy 10-15’ walk from the train station, hard to miss it.

Combo ticket for Royal Apartments, Casemates, Castle Church and Maritime Museum costs 95DKK
Combo ticket for Royal Apartments, Casemates and Castle Church costs 70DKK
Combo ticket for Casemates and Castle Church costs 30DKK
Ticket for Maritime Museum costs 50DKK

The castle is open daily 10.30-17.00 (may to September) and Tuesday to Sunday 11.00-16.00(winter months)

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Kronborg Slot was built in the middle of 16th century by King Frederik II in renaissance style (on the site of the previous castle that was built by King Erik of Pomerania in 15th century).

Although it’s one of the most important Renaissance castles it is really funny/weird that most of the tourists come here because of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (the setting of the play was on Kronborg Castle, known as Elsinore in the play). As we walked through the Royal Apartments we saw some rooms with photos from theatrical plays that take place from time to time in the castle. It must a nice experience to see the famous Hamlet inside the castle. I have seen it in Greece in the past but you may want to read the book or just watch a movie version (by the way Mel Gibson was starring as Hamlet at the movie version of 1991).

I have to admit that we found the Royal Apartments boring and overrated for the expensive ticket. Of course if you like to see some furniture rooms and other things like some old original tapestries (7 out of the 40 that King Frederik II commissioned) you may like it but with so many palaces and castles all over Denmark we were already full with such pictures in our heads. Ok, still we enjoyed checking the ceiling paintings but the interior was disappointing in general. There’s an excuse of course because we knew that the big fire in 1629 destroyed most of the castle and later much of the treasures were stolen during wars etc Some of the tapestries are really faded, that’s why the have low light in those rooms to protect them from further fading.

King Christian IV rebuilt the castle in 1630, one year after the great fire. He commissioned a series of 84 drawings that show several heroic moments from Danish history. The drawings were made by 9 Dutch artists and all the paintings were to be models of paintings to embellish the restored Ballroom but only some of them were finished to plan, that’s why only 44 drawings and 15 paintings in the series have been preserved and what’s more they were damaged during the Swedish occupation in 1658-60, they were transferred to Sweden in various castles and other places where they cut and trimmed to fit into new frames!! Today we can see the series of paintings that were returned to Kronborg during the 1900s. This exhibition at Queen’s Gallery (pic 4) is the only one that I stood for some extra minutes to see and read about them as there are signs with a lot of information about each painting. Christian IV’s enthusiasm for historical scenes is notable but easy to understand why as Denmark held the dominant position of power in the Nordic countries at the period that the original scenes took place..

Combo ticket for Royal Apartments, Casemates, Castle Church and Maritime Museum costs 95DKK
Combo ticket for Royal Apartments, Casemates and Castle Church costs 70DKK

The Royal Apartments are open daily 10.30-17.00 (may to September) and Tuesday to Sunday 11.00-16.00(winter months)

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After visiting the royal apartments a lot of people went to the café to enjoy a cold beer under the sun while I went into the casemates! They are Kronborg’s underground system of dark (very dark) corridors and rooms under the castle.

We noticed some young people having fun down there, screaming at each other like being at London Dungeons but if you don’t have a flash light with you may feel really uncomfortable as some parts are completely dark! Hopefully, signs will show you the way. If you’re afraid of the dark or small claustrophobic places you may better avoid the visit here. Although some paths are litted (pics 1-2) there were other parts that you could see nothing (pic 3) or I had to take a picture with flash just to realize that I’m at a dead end (pic 4)

Originally the casemates were used as the Castle’s prison and also for housing the stables but during war periods used also as soldiers’ quarters (they are large enough to house 1000 people and provisions for a 6week siege).

I can’t say I enjoyed anything down here except the giant statue of Ogier the Dane which lies here since the early 20th century (pic 5). Holger Danske was born as Denmark’s prince, he was taken to Avalon by Morgan le Fay but Charlemague of France captured him and put him to fight for France all over Europe. The legend says he felt asleep under the castle but he is a hero of Denmark and if ever Denmark will be in danger he will rise in flesh and blood to defend his country with his sword. We tried not to make too much noise next to him because we were afraid that he may not recognize the sound of our digital cameras, I don’t know but these Vikings were doing their job first and then asked the questions :) On way out we wondered why didn’t he wake up during the Nazi occupation in WWII…

Combo ticket for Royal Apartments, Casemates, Castle Church and Maritime Museum costs 95DKK
Combo ticket for Royal Apartments, Casemates and Castle Church costs 70DKK
Combo ticket for Casemates and Castle Church costs 30DKK

The casemates are open daily 10.30-17.00 (may to September) and Tuesday to Sunday 11.00-16.00(winter months)

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The Castle church is located inside the Kronborg Castle.

It was commenced by King Frederik II in 1577 but it was built in 1582 and it was the only area of the castle that didn’t get damaged by the great fire in 1629 which means we can still admire the beautiful rich interior that has a lot of precious and interesting things to see like Christian IV’s throne, the carved pews, chandeliers etc.

The altarpiece (pic 2) that dates from 1587 is made of marble and alabaster and has some nice details, the large center field represents the crucifixion while at the wooden side panels you can see episodes from the Old Testament.

The organ façade (pic 4) dates from 1636. It is crowned by the royal cipher of Christian IV, C4. The organ itself was renewed in 1843.

The beautiful carved ceiling gives you an idea how were the ceilings at the Royal Apartments before the great fire in 1629.

By the way the church is still used for weddings (which means visitors aren’t allowed to enter that day? I’m not sure)

There are 3 different tickets that include a visit to the castle church:
Combo ticket for Royal Apartments, Casemates, Castle Church and Maritime Museum costs 95DKK
Combo ticket for Royal Apartments, Casemates and Castle Church costs 70DKK
Combo ticket for Casemates and Castle Church costs 30DKK

Kronborg Slot, Helsingor, Denmark
At the eastern end of the southern wing

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If you like boats and ships you may find interesting to visit the Maritime Museum which is located inside the Kronborg castle, a weird place for a maritime museum I think but in 2012 the museum will have its own building near the castle.

The museum opened in 1915 and its collection has a large collection of ship models, paintings with naval themes, a lot of maritime objects but also photographs of boats and people.

There are some useful signs (in Danish and English) that will give you information and you may spend 60’ inside if you are interested about the Danish naval history (trade with colonies in India, wars etc)

Although I liked some of the models I found myself just passing by most of the exhibits like the small exhibition of ship portraits (the golden age of this genre coincited with that of the sailing ship in the late 19th century, especially at seafaring nations of Western Europe). What I liked most were a series of nice old black and white photographs showing Danish immigrants arriving in USA at the beginning of 20th century (pic 4) or others waving goodbye to family and friends aboard the Scandinavian-America Line’s S/S Oscar II (pic 5)

Ticket for Maritime Museum costs 50DKK
Combo ticket for Royal Apartments, Casemates, Castle Church and Maritime Museum costs 95DKK

The museum is open daily 10.30-17.00 (may to September) and Tuesday to Sunday 11.00-16.00(winter months)

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Walking around the moat of the Kronborg Castle was very relaxing. At the back side we walked at the picturesque paths (pic 1) and ended up at the beach (pic 2). We spent some time watching sailboats (pic 3) while some locals where there for fishing (pic 4). At the same time others -mostly visitors- were collecting stones and shells on the beach.

We didn’t get the ferry to the other side of Oresund but it was interesting to have Sweden so close in front of us. Don’t forget that Helsingor lies at the narrowest point between the 2 countries with its twin town Helsingborg clearly seen at the other side, on 4km away(pic 5).