Helsingor

The home of Hamlet’s castle doesn’t let facts interfere with its history

Does it really matter to the pilgrims flocking to this town that Hamlet never existed? Or that William Shakespeare never traveled to Helsingor? To the pilgrims wanting to see "Hamlet's Castle," the power of legend is what really matters.

Helsingor has a distinctive charm, with a market square, medieval lanes, and old half-timbered and brick buildings, many constructed by ships' captains in the heyday of the 19th-century shipping industry. The town developed in the 15th century after King Erik of Pomerania ruled that ships passing Helsingor had to pay a toll for sailing within local waters. King Erik also constructed the Castle of Krogen, later rebuilt by Christian IV as the Castle of Kronborg. For a while Helsingor prospered and grew so much that it was the second-largest town in the country. Today much of the town's prosperity depends on those free-spending Hamlet devotees and that sliver of water between Denmark and Sweden, with ferries leaving frequently for Helsingborg.

© 2009, Wiley Publishing, Inc.