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Helsingør (‘Elsinore’) and Kronborg Castle
Helsingør is the Elsinore in Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", and Kronborg is the castle featured in the same play. Rather than being the royal domain that Shakespeare imagined, Kronborg's importance is more as a glorified customs post.
 Helsingør occupies a very stragegic position at the narrowest point of the Øresund (The Sound), where the northern tip of Zealand is only 4 km or so(?? miles) from the Swedish mainland. All shipping between the Baltic and the Kattegat (en route to the North Sea) has to come through here, and the original Kronborg Castle was built to ensure that the customs charges for using the passage (the "Sound Dues", introduced by Erik of Pomerania in the early 15th century) could be collected.
The castle we see today is a 17th century reconstruction of a 16th century castle which was damaged by fire in 1629. The Castle was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in November 2000.
Helsingør itself is a small and attractive town, with many interesting historical buildings. It is about 45km north of Copenhagen, and can be easily reached from there in under an hour on the coastal railway (Kystbanen). Trains run about every 10 minutes on week days (20 minutes at weekends), and also serve Humlebæk for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. The railway terminates at a rather grand station on the quayside, which has direct access to the modern Scandlines ferry terminal. From here ferries run every 20 minutes on the short crossing to Helsingborg in Sweden, which takes about 20 minutes.
Helsingør is also the terminus of the rather quaint Hornbækbanen local railway which runs along the northern Kattegat coast of Zealand to Hornbæk and Gilleleje. This single car service is more like a large tram than a train, and runs along the quayside from Helsingør station (see picture).
For more information on Helsingør see the Helsingør City Net and Port of Elsinore websites. There is also tourist information on the Royal North Sealand site.
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