Copenhagen: Rosenborg Castle

 King Christian IV is revered in Copenhagen like no other.  He ruled from 1596 until 1648.  He was a builder of buildings and empires, a good military commander, a government reformer and a royal party animal.  Within his realm he took Denmark to the very forefront of European Power and Prestige and bankrupted the country through his appetite for war, so that at the end of his reign Denmark was clearly on the decline.  He loved women, hunting, feasting and drinking, and he built the Rosenborg Castle to facilitate all this. 

Sandy and I spent the better part of the day at the Rosenborg Castle.  This is a beautiful building, once Christian IVs summer digs, now an informative museum that truly helps you to know this larger than life Danish King.

We walked through the Castle as visitors would have 400 hundred years ago, and all eyes were on him.  On the mantle was a marble bust of the man, as it has been since Christian IV occupied the place.  The bust exudes everything that he was and what he wanted his image to be - fashionable, hard drinker, hard lover, energetic statesman, and warrior king.  It's frozen right there in that marble likeness.

A younger version of the King jousting on his coronation day

His study, writing room was small.  In medieval Denmark small rooms meant warm rooms.  We know a great deal of Christian's personal and official life because of the surviving 3,000+ letters and documents that he wrote in this room.  Behind his desk, atop the fireplace, was his official "logo", a "C" with a "4" in the middle and a crown on top.  This logo can be found all over the city, it has become sort of a drinking game (sans the drinking) for Sandy and I when we spot them.  

Passing into the king's bedroom there is a small peephole through the door.  I suppose so that the king from in the bedroom could look out to see who wanted in or perhaps to look into his bedroom to see what was going on.  Either way, I determined that C4 must have been my exact height because the peephole was a perfect height for me to look through to do my own spying.

The spy hole is the black dot on the lower right

Also in this room was a painting of the King as an old man ...

... and a dead man.  He died in this room.

In a case in this room are the blood stained clothes that he was wearing when in battle a bomb exploded near where he was standing on deck.  A piece of shrapnel took out an eye and another piece was embedded in his forehead.  Wounded and bleeding profusely he continued directing the battle.  He later had the shrapnel placed in earrings that he gave to one of his mistresses.  He was nothing, if not a showman.

The collar is white, the dark stain is his blood

The earrings made from shrapnel, a gift to his mistress

C4 was always looking for a good time and one of his toys was an elegant looking chair that was the forerunner of the whoopee cushion.  The victim was to sit in the chair.  Clamps would then hold your arms in place while the prankster, presumably the king, would pour water down the back of the chair.  It was funneled through a hole to flow between the chair seat and the victims rear-end, making him or her feel as though they had wet their pants.  To add insult to injury, when the wet-panted victim stood up, the wet chair would make unflattering sounds.    

A sixteenth century whoopee cushion

The mistresses' room, was finely decorated with a big fireplace and lots of paintings.  But perhaps most telling of the King's use of this room is the painting directly over where the bed would have been.  An audience of musicians looking in on the activities below.

Another room that Christian IV liked to entertain his lady friends in was the mirror room.  Floor to ceiling mirrors.  Sounds more like something Hugh Hefner would have thought was "cool" in the sixties.  Just goes to show, there is nothing new in the world.

But the 17th century visitor would soon forget all the sophomoric shenanigans going on in the king's private apartment once they stepped into the Long Hall, the Throne Room.  There the King sat with the Queen, (despite his mistresses the King married twice for political alliances) in a hall that commanded awe.  The tapestries along the walls depict his version of his personal history. 

And of course it would hardly be a castle if it didn't have any Crown Jewels.

After a day of walking around the city and enjoying castles, Sandy and I went to the Nytorv Café for dinner.  The Danes have voted Stegt flæsk their nation dish.  It is thick slices of pork belly with the rind, fried until the rind side is crispy.  It is always served with beet root, and a gravy heavily flavored with parsley.  It may be their National Dish, but when push comes to shove the Danish Pastries are their best culinary contribution, the Classic Danish hot dog comes in second and the Stent flæsk a sorry third.