Avnøgård (Avnø), is a manor house and estate located in

Vordingborg Municipality Vordingborg () is a municipality ('' kommune'') in the Sjælland Region, which is on the southeast coast of the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in south Denmark. It was established in 2007. The municipality covers an area of 621 km2. It ha ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. The estate was acquired by the Ministry of Defence in 1836 and turned into an airfield, Flyvestation Avnø. It was decommissioned when the airbase moved to

Karup Karup is a town in Viborg Municipality, Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , su ...

in 1993. Part of the estate is now the site of a nature centre, Naturcenter Avnø.

History

Reinhard Iselin by Georg Mathias Fuchs, 1766

In 1883, Vordingborg Cavalry District was divided into 12 estates and sold in a public auction. Avnø was sold to baron

Reinhard Iselin Reinhard Iselin (4 August 1714 – 10 April 1781) was a Danish merchant, shipowner and industrialist who founded Reinhard Iselin & Co. in Copenhagen in 1749. The company completed 65 expeditions to the Danish West Indies. Iselin was also active in ...

. He was the buyer of

Vordingborg Castle The Vordingborg Castle ruins (''Vordingborg Slotsruin'') are located in the town of Vordingborg, Denmark and are the town's most famous attraction. History The castle was built in 1175 by King Valdemar I of Denmark as a defensive fortress, and a ...

(renamed

Rosenfeldt Rosenfeldt Manor is a manor house and estate located just west of Vordingborg, Vordingborg Municipality, some 90 km south of Copenhagen, Denmark. One of 12 new manors created when Vordingborg Cacalry District was dissolved in 1774, its first owner ...

), Snertingåaard samt Ladegaard (renamed

Iselingen Iselingen is a manor house and estate located close to Vordingborg on the southern part of Zealand in southeastern Denmark. It takes its name after the Swiss-born merchant Reinhard Iselin who established it in the 1770s. The current main building w ...

) after the estates had been sold. The buyer was Jens Lind, who later that same year sold the estate to Fredrik Hoppe. The next year Hoppe sold the estate to M. N. Friis. In the 1820s, Danish agriculture was hit by a crisis. In 1825, Avnø was sold to Jacob Staal. Staal's son, Hans Peter Staal, inherited Avnø after his father's death in 1851. In 1854, Avnø was purchased by Abigael Christine Bølle. At age 17 she married 64-year-old Jacob Bølle of Vintersborg on

Lolland Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is the fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of . Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of Region Sjælland (Region Zealand). As of 1 January 2022, it has 57,618 inhabitant ...

. Her husband died in May 1845 and Vinterborg was sold to Frederik Anton Hastrup in 1848. In 1859, she ceded the estate to their son Jørgen Bølle. In 1861, he sold it to W. N. J. Benthien. Carl Arthur George O'Neill Oxholm, the owner of Rosenfeld, purchased Avnø in 1877. In 1904, he sold the estate to Jacob Søegaard. The estate changed hands three times over the following three decades. It was decommissioned when the air base moved to Karup in 1993. In 2004 the airfield's buildings and part of the land were converted into a nature centre. The main building was sold to Micki Friebel in 2990.

Architecture

The white-washed, two-storey main building dates from 1903. It was expanded in the mid-1910s. The older farm buildings are located to the west of the main building.

List of owners

* ( -1774) Kronen * (1774-1781)

* (1781-1803) P.G.A. Bosc de la Calmette * (1803) Jens Lind * (1803-1804) Frederik Hoppe * (1804-1824) M. N. Friis * (1824-1851) Jacob Staal * (1851-1854) Hans Peter Staal * (1854-1859) Abigael Christine Bølle * (1859-1861) Jørgen Bølle * (1861-1877) W. N. J. Benthien * (1877-1904) C. A. C. O'Neil Oxholm * (1904-1921) Jacob Søegaard * (1921-1922) Christensen * (1921-1922) Christian Iversen * (1922-1936) A. Prejsz * (1936-1993) Flyvestation Avnø * (2009–present) Micki Friebel

References

{{reflist Manor houses in Vordingborg Municipality Buildings and structures of the Oxholm family