I hope that everyone back in the States is doing well! I miss everyone at home but am continuing to enjoy my time here in Denmark and Europe.
Yesterday I asked Joe to get me passes to the art museum so I could go. Instead he got me the passes for Koldinghus which was also on the list of things to do so despite the rain today (the weather this week has been a little less than favorable!) after having some lunch off I went to Koldinghus to discover some Danish history!
These are the inner walls of KoldinghusMost of the plaques were in Danish so I didn’t learn a whole lot at the actual castle but the website provided some addition insight to what I observed while visiting the old castle. So to start off Koldinghus has been a museum in Denmark since like early 1990s. The original castle was destroyed by fire in 1808. The castle was build in 1268 and has served in many capacities in Denmark since being built. When the Renaissance period started in Europe Koldinghus was the home to King Christian III. He died at the castle on January 1, 1559 after battling illness since Christmas Eve. His wife and Queen remained in the castle until her death in 1571. King Christian III had the first Protestant chapel built in the castle which was used for many years. This chapel was destroyed by fire in 1581 and replaced in 1585. When King Christian IV finished his Palace chapel in 1600 there was no need for this chapel. It was converted into additional royal chambers and a bakery. During the restoration of the castle the chapel was restored to its original purpose. It is not currently used as a chapel but is used as a lecture hall.
The Palace ChapelOther interesting aspects of Koldinghus include the following:
The Ruin Hall is currently used for many different exhibits. This halls shows the majority of the damage from the 1808 fire. This area is found in the south wing of the castle. It was really cool to see the inner walls from where the fire damage was done. So much of this part of the castle was destroyed.
Danish art, silver and fine and decorative art. Koldinghus houses many pieces that have been awarded the Karl Gustav Hansen Prize for silver. These pieces were so beautiful! I loved the detail and complexity of the designs. In one of the rooms they were showing a video of how a silver vase was made. It was so interesting to see how this flat sheet of silver was transformed into a beautiful and intricate piece of art. They had a beautiful porcelain collection as well. In addition there were several pieces from the famous Danish designer Thorvald Bindesbøll. He designed many beautiful pieces of furniture and provided pieces for the 1900 Worlds Fair in Paris. He also has many famous silver pieces and silverware.
While continuing to explore the castle I happened upon a very old book. Thankfully one of the security guides was there and explained to me what I was looking at. Turns out that the book I saw was the written law by King Frederick III that made Denmark an absolute Monarchy and no longer allowed for elected leaders in the Monarch. This law was very instrumental in Danish history and caused quite a stir with the nobility of the time. This is the only written copy of this type of law as well.
One of the last things I saw was the room full of toys! Who doesn’t like a room full of toys!? Especially toys from far back in history. I learned some new and interesting things while exploring this little room. First off did you know that the original doll houses were not actually used to play with? No, these fancy little houses were actually taken our during special occasions for adults to admire. No way! Who wants a doll house if you can’t even play with it! :)
After the toy room I climbed a bunch of stairs to get up to the tower. On a cold and raining day it wasn’t to pleasant to be up there but I managed to get some good photos anyway. The original tower had four statues on each corner that represented the great kings of the time. One of those was Hercules. These statues bore the Coat of Arms of the King they represented. Parts of the Hercules and Scipio statues remain in the Koldinghus visitors center; however, the the rest were destroyed.
So I keep talking about this fire so maybe I’ll give you a little more about it. On March 30, 1808 fire broke out in one of the chimneys of the castle. The Hvlid family was residing in the castle at the time. In addition there were many Spanish soldier staying in the castle due to the Napoleon wars. It turns out that people were worried about the possibility of a fire with the soldiers there so there were watchman assigned to make sure this didn’t happen. The fire burned for several hours and the smell of smoke was throughout the castle but everyone thought it was just from the fire which happened when the wind blew just right. Well interesting fact the watchman weren’t actually there when the fire started in the guardroom! By the time anything could be done about the fire tremendous damage was already done. The fire burned in the castle for a long time. Thankfully Mrs. Hvild was able to save many of the family items through a window. The castle ruins remained in Kolding for many years without plans to restore or rebuild the castle.
Eventually it was decided that Koldinghus would become a museum and plans to restore the castle were finally put into place. In 1991 the castle restoration was complete the castle has been used as a museum ever since.
This trip through history was fun and exciting. I really enjoy learning about European history since it’s so much more in depth than American history!
(I’m such a trained graduate student too and feel like I have to cite everything, though in my blog not strictly APA style, so for those of you who would like to read a lot more or want to know where all this came from please visit http://www.koldinghus.dk/ If you click the British flag it goes to English!)
Thanks for reading! More to come soon!
Love from Amanda
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