Treasured key to cellar door

VISITORS to the historic Danish city of Aalborg may not get the keys to the city but you can get the next best thing: the key to the back door to the wine cellar of Christian the Fourth’s Guild.

However, first you must undergo an initiation ceremony in this basement cellar in Jens Bangs Stenhus with the band of merry men who make up the guild “benchers”.

The guild was founded in 1942 in the dark days of World War II, when Denmark was occupied by the Germans. A group of the town’s citizens, along with the owner of the wine cellar, formed a union and set up a private club that was kept closed to the occupying Nazi troops.

They called it Christian the Fourth’s Guild in recognition of the monarch who ruled Denmark in 1623, when merchant Jens Bang built his house.

Though the purpose of the guild vanished with the liberation of Denmark in 1945, the city has safeguarded the guild as a gesture of hospitality to visitors.

It now has 8000 members from 97 nations and its membership dues raise funds for local and overseas charities. Danish royalty including Queen Margrethe II, Prince Henrik, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joakim feature among the members.

Overseas dignitaries such as Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Danny Kaye were initiated into the guild in their time. In May I, along with 95 other passengers aboard the Viking Star, joined the ranks.

The arrival of Viking Star marked the guild’s largest initiation ceremony in its 73-year history. In the dark cellar lit by candlelight and framed by oak barrels, we sat with empty glasses in front of us while the red-cloaked Benchers raise theirs in several long toasts and read out the guild rules.

The rules for “maintaining order in the Guild Hall” included “Any brother resorting to indecorous conversation with the wife of a fellow brother must have to pay as a fine five mugs of beer to be drunk by such members as might have overheard the conversation.”

We are then initiated one by one, given a scroll of the guild’s statutes and a key, and are led out the front door, with our left hand resting on the shoulder of the person in front, down the side street and to the back door of the cellar where the first person opened the door with the key.

Formalities over, we sat back down at the tables to enjoy a drink and a hearty serving of hot dogs before heading off to enjoy the rest of the beautiful city.

The Aalborg walking tour, an included shore excursion, is designed to reveal the city’s connection to the sea. Its location at the narrowest point of the beautiful Limfjord makes it accessible only to small ships like ours.

From the ship’s berth in the city centre you stroll through what many regard as the best-preserved Renaissance architecture in Denmark. You pass the baroque Town Hall built in 1762 and the 14th century Cathedral of St Budolf to reach the Monastery of the Holy Ghost, one of the oldest medieval buildings in Denmark.

Like most cities in Europe, this one, founded by the Vikings in the late 900s, has an imposing castle and you can see the dungeons where prisoners were held.

* Sue Preston was a guest of Viking Ocean Cruises.