Jelling was inscribed on the World Heritage List as indisputably the most remarkable Danish monument from the Viking Age, a place of worship down through the ages. Two runic stones are positioned between two enormous mounds. In winter 958/959 A.D. King Harold Bluetooth buried his father, Gorm the Old in the first of the two mounds. The second mound is though to have been created as a sepulchral monument to his mother, Queen Thyra. A ship tumulus consisting of 2 rows of menhirs also mark the burial site.
Close to the mounds, Harold erected two imposing runic stones. One of these stones is beautifully and distinctively decorated with the image of Christ and an inscription whereby King Harold Bluetooth proclaims that he erected this stone in memory of his father, Gorm the Old, and that he united Denmark and Norway and converted the Danes to Christianity. This founding history gave rise to the tradition for referring to the stone as “Denmark’s Birth Certificate”.
Together with Jelling, Roskilde Cathedral is Denmark’s most important national monument. King Harold, who erected the Jelling Stone was interred at Roskilde. At the end of the Middle Ages the Cathedral became the mausoleum for the Royal House and, since the time of Christian II, all Denmark’s monarchs have been entombed in the Cathedral, which throughout Denmark’s Christian history has been a political and spiritual centre.
As the first Gothic stone church in the Nordic region, the Cathedral inspired the art of church building throughout Northern Europe. The extension buildings added right up until the 19th century reflect the European history of church architecture.
Kronborg Castle is Denmark’s latest entry on the UNESCO List and was chosen as an outstanding example of a Renaissance castle and for the important part it played in North European history in the 16th and 17th centuries. The castle which is well preserved in its authentic style has great symbolic value for the Danes. In the English-speaking world, Kronborg is known as the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.