Et land bygget i sten
A country built in stone
Danmark er fladt, vådt og strategisk. Det har gjort det til et af Europas tættest befæstede lande pr. kvadratkilometer.
Denmark is flat, wet and strategic. That has made it, per square kilometre, one of Europe's most heavily fortified countries.
Det danske kongerige har i tusind år ligget i et af verdens vigtigste skibsknudepunkter: porten mellem Nordsøen og Østersøen, mellem Tyskland og Skandinavien. Hver eneste købmandsskib, der i middelalderen ville til Lübeck, Riga eller Sankt Petersborg, måtte forbi Helsingør. Hver hærleder, der ville fra Hamborg til Stockholm, måtte over Lillebælt og Storebælt. Hver vendisk pirat, der prøvede lykken i Østersøen, blev på et tidspunkt fanget af en dansk konge.
For a thousand years the Danish kingdom has straddled one of the world's most important maritime junctions: the gate between the North Sea and the Baltic, between Germany and Scandinavia. Every merchant ship that wanted to reach Lübeck, Riga or St. Petersburg in the Middle Ages had to pass Helsingør. Every army commander who wanted to go from Hamburg to Stockholm had to cross the Little Belt and the Great Belt. Every Wendish pirate who tried his luck in the Baltic was eventually caught by a Danish king.
Derfor er Danmark dækket af borge. På de næsten 43.000 kvadratkilometer findes mere end 180 slotte, herregårde og borgruiner. Otte af dem har på et eller andet tidspunkt været kongebolig. Tre står på UNESCOs verdensarvsliste. Og to af dem bebos stadig — om vinteren af monarken i København, om sommeren i Sønderjylland.
That is why Denmark is covered in castles. Across less than 43,000 square kilometres there are more than 180 castles, manor houses and castle ruins. Eight of them have at some point been royal residences. Three appear on UNESCO's World Heritage List. And two are still inhabited — in winter by the monarch in Copenhagen, in summer in southern Jutland.
Denne side er en informationsportal. Vi sælger ingenting, vi sporer ikke, vi har ingen reklamer. Vi bringer kun det, slottene selv har at fortælle: deres datoer, deres bygmestre, deres brande og deres legender.
This site is an information portal. We sell nothing, we track nothing, we carry no advertising. We bring only what the castles themselves have to tell: their dates, their builders, their fires and their legends.
