Koldinghus is a Danish royal
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
in the town of
Kolding
Kolding () is a Danish seaport located at the head of Kolding Fjord in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the seat of Kolding Municipality. It is a transportation, commercial, and manufacturing centre, and has numerous industrial companie ...
on the south central part of the
Jutland
Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...
peninsula
A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on a ...
. The castle was founded in the 13th century and was expanded since with many functions ranging from fortress, royal residency, ruin, museum, and the location of numerous wartime negotiations.
Today the restored castle functions as a museum containing collections of furniture from the 16th century to present,
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
and
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
church culture, older Danish paintings, crafts focused on ceramics and silver and shifting thematized exhibitions. Koldinghus is managed by the Museum at Koldinghus which was established in 1890.
History
The oldest remaining part of castle is the north side facing the castle lake originally built by King
Christoffer III (1441–1448). The western side was later built by King
Christian I (1448–1481). King
Christian III (1503–1559) built the south side and the small towers in the courtyard.
In 1252
Abel, King of Denmark (1218–1252) was killed during an expedition to
Friesland
Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...
leaving the Danish kingdom without a leader. The natural order of things would be to elect
Valdemar III, Duke of Schleswig as king however he was in a prison cell in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
. This prompted the election of Abel's brother,
Christoffer I, as the new king.
After King
Christoffer I was murdered in 1259, his son
Eric V of Denmark
Eric V Klipping (1249 – 22 November 1286) was King of Denmark from 1259 to 1286. After his father Christopher I died, his mother Margaret Sambiria ruled Denmark in his name until 1266, proving to be a competent regent. Between 1261 and 1262, ...
(1249–1286) was elected king. Eric was just ten years old at the time and faced claims to the throne from the sons of King
Abel of Slesvig led by
Eric I, Duke of Schleswig
Eric I Abelsøn ( da, Erik 1. Abelsøn af Danmark) (died 27 May 1272) was a Danish nobleman. He was the ruling Duke of Schleswig from 1260 until his death in 1272. He was the second son of King Abel of Denmark, Duke of Schleswig and Mechtild of ...
.
Several wars between the king of Denmark and the Duke of Schleswig ensued until it was finally decided to build a fortress to defend the southern borders against its troublesome neighbour. It was in the context of this dynastic intrigue that Koldinghus was built. At Kolding, a hill in the centre of the town was chosen as the site for a castle. A moat was dug and wooden palisades erected. This was later to become Koldinghus.
Expansion
In the 16th century cannons became more frequent tools of war and thick walled fortresses like Koldinghus partly lost their defensive significance. For this reason King
Christian III added several buildings to the fortress and eventually turned it into a royal residence. The new residence became popular among the royal family and Prince
Frederick Frederick may refer to:
People
* Frederick (given name), the name
Nobility
Anhalt-Harzgerode
*Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670)
Austria
* Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198
* Frederick ...
, the heir apparent, grew up at Koldinghus. Christian III sometimes held court at the castle and it was here on 1 January 1559 that he died.
When
Christian IV
Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...
became king in 1588 he choose to expand it further with the addition of the “Giant tower”, so named because of the four statues of giants from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representa ...
: (
Hannibal,
Hector
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
,
Scipio and
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the ...
) which adorned it. Today, the only statue on the tower is that of Hercules, since Hannibal and Hector were crushed during
the 1808 fire and in a storm in 1854, Scipio fell to the ground.
Over the course of time
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
became the focal point of the political power and the outlying local royal residences were used less and less frequently. When
Frederik IV became king he decided to remove most of the remaining surrounding walls leaving Koldinghus as it can be seen today.
Fire
During the
Napoleonic wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
in 1808, Denmark had allied herself with France and Spain against among others Sweden and England. It was decided that 30,000 French and Spanish soldiers were to be stationed in Denmark to assist in a campaign to recuperate the
Scanian lands The term Scanian (, or ) can refer to:
* A person born or living in the province of Scania proper (Skåne)
* The people and language of the historical provinces of Scania (Terrae Scaniae, Skånelandene (Danish), Skåneland (Swedish)
* Scanian dia ...
lost to Sweden 150 years earlier. The Spanish soldiers arrived during the winter of 1808 and were quartered at Koldinghus under the supervision of their French commander
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte
sv, Karl Johan Baptist Julius
, spouse =
, issue = Oscar I of Sweden
, house = Bernadotte
, father = Henri Bernadotte
, mother = Jeanne de Saint-Jean
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Pau, ...
(later to become king of Sweden and Norway). The Scandinavian climate typically being somewhat colder than that of Spain and France reportedly resulted in much activity around the furnaces and stoves to the extent of even furniture being set alight. This combined with the unusually large number of people concentrated in the castle may have been contributing factors to the fire which erupted in the early hours of a winter night. The fire was discovered all too late to salvage the main buildings.
Restoration
The ongoing events in the
Napoleonic wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
were not favourable to the kingdom and funds remained too tight to immediately warrant a reconstruction of the castle. It remained a ruin for several decades to come and over time became a popular
landmark visited by among others
HC Andersen. It was eventually decided to restore the old castle and in 1991 it was completed.
File:Koldinghus - Old castle in Kolding - Denmark 006.JPG, External restoration
File:Koldinghus - Old castle in Kolding - Denmark 008.jpg, Internal restoration and outfitting
File:Koldinghus - Old castle in Kolding - Denmark 009.jpg, New supporting pillars in wood
File:Kolding Slot modern stairs.JPG, New staircases
File:Kirkerummet på Koldinghus.jpg, The castle church in augmented reality
Exhibitions and events
In December 2009, the museum hosted the exhibition e-Collection, organized in collaboration with the
Design School Kolding
Design School Kolding (Danish: Designskolen Kolding) is a design school located in Kolding, Denmark. It delivers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in the areas of fashion, textiles, communication design, industrial design, accessory design, an ...
and the Trapholt Art Museum. The exhibition was held in connection with the
United Nations Climate Change Conference
The United Nations Climate Change Conferences are yearly conferences held in the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They serve as the formal meeting of the UNFCCC parties (Conference of the Parties, ...
and included innovative motorcycles, jewelry and other eco-friendly designs. The exhibition was opened by
Crown Prince Frederik
Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, (Frederik André Henrik Christian; born 26 May 1968) is the heir apparent to the Danish throne. He is the elder son of Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik.
Early life
Crown Prince Frede ...
.
References
Other sources
*
*
*Ortmann, Jytte (1994) ''Slotte og Herregårde i Danmark'' (Sesam Egmont)
External links
Koldinghus Museum websiteKoldinghusAssociation of Castles and Museums around the Baltic Sea
{{Castles in Denmark
Buildings and structures completed in the 12th century
Castles in Denmark
Forts in Denmark
Listed buildings and structures in Kolding Municipality
Listed castles and manor houses in Denmark
Castles in the Region of Southern Denmark
Museums in the Region of Southern Denmark
Kolding Municipality
Art museums and galleries in Denmark
History museums in Denmark
Gothic architecture in Denmark