Hammershus

Facts

Northern Europe's largest castle ruin

By Kjeld Borch Vesth, Restaureringsarkitekt, Kulturarvsstyrelsen (5 stories)

Hammershus, Northern Europe's largest castle ruin, stands on a 74-metre rocky plateau in the northwest corner of Bornholm. The castle is thought to have been built on the orders of King Valdemar II and the Archbishop of Lund in the early 13th century, when the Danes were crusading in the Baltic Region. The land on which it was built belonged to the Archbishop, and its construction was probably financed by booty from the crusades. The castle was built over a relatively short period as a coherent complex with a central fort, perimeter forts and moats. The total area covered by the fortifications is around 130,000 square metres.

Public place

Selected entry

Before the crusade of 1219

Story written by Kjeld Borch Vesth

Time / Periode 1200

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We are camped by the new Hammershus castle, awaiting the last warships from North Jutland. Once they have all been rallied, we sail east to Christianise the heathens in Estonia. But we’ve enough to get on with. While we wait, we carry on building the castle. King Valdemar is supervising construction of the castle, which has the Archbishop's blessing. Master builders have been summoned from afar for the skilled work. But it's the men from the ships who haul the large granite boulders up from the quarries to the construction site. The castle is surrounded by high walls. These are being built out of grey granite topped with a red-brick wall. In the middle of the castle is the great tower – four storeys high, with its top storey and embrasures in brick.