Kronborg Castle

In Helsingør, Denmark, about 45 minutes north of Copenhagen, Kronborg guards the Øresund strait where Denmark and Sweden face each other across just 4 km of water. Rebuilt in the late 1500s during the Renaissance, it grew rich collecting tolls from every ship entering the Baltic, at peak up to two thirds of the Danish crown's revenue. This is Elsinore, the English name for Helsingør and where Shakespeare set Hamlet. The play draws on the Scandinavian legend of Prince Amleth, whose uncle murdered his father and married his mother, and who pretended madness while plotting revenge. On summer weekends the play is still staged in the courtyard. Below the castle, in the casemates, sleeps Holger Danske, the legendary hero said to rise again if Denmark is ever in danger.