The citadel of Kastellet was a bit of a hidden gem when we visited Copenhagen for the first time, in 2017. I wasn’t expecting anything other than a manicured park as we walked from the centre of Copenhagen to see the Little Mermaid. This visit was with Deb and Zeynep so we were able to spend some time looking around, the second visit was with Sofia who is less interested in castles and it was also January so not the weather for idling!
My Experience
Kastellet is actually a very well preserved star fort, similar to Tilbury. It is the last survivor of a series of forts built to defend the Danish capital and seems almost entirely intact. Particularly interesting are the windmill and the powder house. The windmill was there in case of a long siege to enable the garrison to grind flour. The powder house is sunk deep into the ground with ramparts around to minimise any damage if it exploded.
Inside the ramparts are also various barrack blocks, store houses and officers quarters as well as some period artillery pieces. It is now used as a pleasure park (although there is still a military presence) and it has lovely views across the harbour it was built to defend.
My notes from my blog are:
Kastellet was built in the 17th century as a classic star fort and was used in battle against both the Swedes and us Brits. It didn’t do much in the second world war and is now mainly a public park. There are still cannon on the battlements and the original gates and bridge are still there. We walked around and through the defences and then followed the waterfront to the Little Mermaid statue.
Photo Gallery
References
The link to the Wikipedia page for the site is here.
The official webpage of the site is here.