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 Background
It is well known that it was Napoleon's Spanish soldiers who were the cause of the fire at Koldinghus, but few know that it was the negligence of the local fire watch that resulted in the fire taking its fatal course.
In September 1807 the English had bombarded Copenhagen and captured the Danish fleet. After their departure, Denmark had allied itself to France, and during March approximately 30,000 French, Spanish, and Belgian soldiers had come to Denmark. The Spanish soldiers, who on the evening of 29 March were feeling the cold at Koldinghus, were there because they were on guard at an important visit. Marshall Bernadotte, who was the highest commander of the allied troops, was staying overnight at the castle.
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 Myth or reality?
After the end of the war in 1814, the French and the Belgians were quickly forgotten, but for one reason or another, the Spanish soldiers came to play a large role in popular tradition, and in many Danish families the tradition still exists that one of their ancestors was one of the Spaniards that burnt down Koldinghus. Everybody knows, of course, that the handsome Spaniards seduced the girls one after another, and left behind broken hearts and countless children when they returned home five months after their arrival. But did they really? Investigations in the parish registers in Kolding and the surrounding area have not been able to prove the existence of a single Spanish father, and on the whole of Fünen, where the Spanish soldiers were quartered in large numbers, only seventeen children are registered as having Spanish fathers. This does not mean, of course, that there were not more, but without exaggerating one can with confidence say that there is quite a discrepancy between myth and reality in this case too.
The story of the Spaniards at Koldinghus and their many children is not the only one to be put under the microscope in the exhibition. There were, for example, their eating habits. Did they really eat snails and frogs and cats, as tradition would have it? And did they dance with castagnettes to the sound of mandolins on the cobbled courtyard every night in the biting cold, or did they sooner curl up around the fireplace with the hosts with whom they were quartered during the short time they were in the town?
The exhibition looks at the myths, but tells first and foremost the real stories: why they were here, who they were, where they were, what they did, and what happened when they rose up against Napoleon and went home to fight against him?
Come and experience the story, see what they looked like, see the things they left behind, and encounter the beautiful objects on loan from Spanish museums, private collections, and the ancestors of Marquis Pedro Caro de la Romana, who led the Spanish soldiers' dramatic return home.
Collaboration
For the anniversary year 2008 an exhibition with original objects left behind in Denmark by the Spanish soldiers, as well as presents to Danish families, will be put together. Furthermore, there will be loans from Spain and paintings, weapons, and clothing from the period.
The exhibition is a collaboration between Museet for Holbæk og Omegn, Museet på Koldinghus, Langelands Museum, and Roskilde Museum. It will open in Holbæk after which it will tour the other museums.
Each of the four musems has contributed objects and stories about the particular circumstances which tie its building and surroundings to the events of 1808. Kolding functioned as a thoroughfare for the entry of the foreign troops. There one particularly remembers the fire of 28 and 29 March 1808. Roskilde was witness to a bloody battle around the palace, from which the French general fled. The people of Langeland followed the difficult manoeuvre in which the majority of the Spanish troops gathered on the island and then disappeared onto the British ships. In Holbæk people saw the disarmed Spanish officers being taken away with prisoners of war. Here too a forgotten spanish horse became the ancestress of the famous Knabstrup horse.
The exhibition will be shown in:
Museet for Holbæk og Omegn 1 February – 24 March
Museet på Koldingus 28 March – 25 May
Langelands Museum 13 June – 17 August
Roskilde Museum 29 August – 2 November
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