"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." That line, spoken on the freezing battlements of a castle called Elsinore, is one of the most famous in theater history. The play is Hamlet. The castle is real — it's Kronborg, a massive fortress on Denmark's coast, right where the sea narrows between Denmark and Sweden. Shakespeare wrote it around 1600, and with it, he turned a military stronghold into the most legendary castle on Earth.
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Lost & Found·2/2·1′
The place
Kronborg Castle
Shakespeare's Hamlet at Elsinore
The ghost on the battlements and the most famous play ever written
Elizabethan England (c. 1600-1601), set in medieval DenmarkKronborg Castle
Moral of the Story
“The places where great stories are set become more than locations — they become vessels for the questions that define human existence, and no building in the world carries a heavier burden of meaning than the castle Shakespeare chose for his greatest play.”
Characters
P
Prince HamletK
King ClaudiusQ
Queen GertrudeT
The Ghost of King HamletO
OpheliaH
HoratioW
William ShakespeareSource
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (c. 1601); Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum (c. 1200); Belleforest, Histoires Tragiques (1570)