Egeskov Castle ( da, Egeskov Slot) is located near

Kværndrup Kværndrup is a town located on the island of Funen in south Denmark, in Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality. Places of interest The Egeskov Castle is located about two kilometres from the town, which dates back to the 1400s and is Kværndrup's main att ...

, in the south of the island of

Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...

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 = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. The castle is

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

's best preserved

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

water castle.

History

Egeskov was first mentioned in 1405. The castle structure was erected by Frands Brockenhuus in 1554. Due to the troubles caused by the civil war known as the ''

Count's Feud The Count's Feud ( da, Grevens Fejde), also called the Count's War, was a war of succession that raged in Denmark in 1534–36 and brought about the Reformation in Denmark. In the international context, it was part of the European wars of relig ...

'' (Danish: ''Grevens fejde''), general

civil unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...

, and a civil war introducing the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...

, most Danish noblemen built their homes as fortifications. The castle is constructed on

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

en piles and located in a small lake with a maximum depth of . Originally, the only access was by means of a drawbridge. According to legend, it took an entire forest of oak trees to build the foundation, hence the name ''Egeskov'' (oak forest). The estate has belonged to the Bille-Brahe family since 1784, when they acquired it from descendants of the Brockenhuus family. In 1882 it was inherited by the counts

Ahlefeldt The House of Ahlefeldt is an ancient German and Danish noble family. It has similar coat of arms with the von Rumohr family, which indicates that they have descended from one House. Legend According to legend, the family descended from "Huno ...

-Laurvig-Bille, who still own it.

Castle architecture

Outside, the castle is a Late Gothic building. Inside the original elements already show

design. The castle consists of two long buildings connected by a thick double wall, allowing defenders to abandon one house and continue fighting from the other. The double wall is over one meter thick and contains secret staircases and a

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

. Defenders were able to attack an enemy's flanks from the two round corner

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

s. Other medieval defences include artillery ports, scalding holes and

arrow slit An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria) is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts. The interio ...

s. The bricks composing the castle are of an oversized medieval type sometimes called "monks bricks". The conical towers are constructed in a series of separate panels. The architecture includes depressed and round-arched windows, round-arched blank arcading within the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s, and a double string course between the high cellar and the ground floor. The structure contains some of the early

indoor plumbing Tap water (also known as faucet water, running water, or municipal water) is water supplied through a tap, a water dispenser valve. In many countries, tap water usually has the quality of drinking water. Tap water is commonly used for drinking, ...

design first used in Europe with vertical shafts for waste. The thick double wall also contains a water well which is accessed from the servants kitchen in the east house. Several of the large rooms have massive parallel exposed beams with some end carving.

Castle contents

Contents of the castle include a massive iron chest from at least as early as the 16th century, which derived from

Hvedholm Castle Hvedholm Castle is an estate and castle located near Faaborg on the island of Funen, Denmark. It is now the site of Hvedholm Slotshotel. History Hvedholm was built in the 15th century. The main building was built in 1588, rebuilt in 1681 after a ...

, a property earlier owned by the Egeskov estate about twenty kilometers to the west. Numerous oil paintings are found within the castle including a large painting in the great hall on the first floor of

Niels Juel Niels Juel (8 May 1629 – 8 April 1697) was a Danish admiral and a naval hero. He served as supreme command of the Dano-Norwegian Navy during the late 17th century and oversaw development of the Danish-Norwegian Navy. Background Niels Juel ...

, who defeated the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

force in the Battle of Køge Bay in the year 1677.

Gardens and lands

Other buildings belonging to Egeskov include ''Ladegården'', a

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

half-timbered building which is now part of the museum. Other buildings are used by the museum and for farming. Surrounding the castle is an old park, covering 20 hectares (49 acres) of land. The park is divided into a number of gardens. The renaissance garden features

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were ori ...

s, a gravel path and

topiary Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...

figures. The

fuchsia ''Fuchsia'' () is a genus of flowering plants that consists mostly of shrubs or small trees. The first to be scientifically described, ''Fuchsia triphylla'', was discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) ...

garden, one of the largest in Europe, contains 104 different species. Other gardens near the castle include an

English garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

, a

water garden Water garden or aquatic garden, is a term sometimes used for gardens, or parts of gardens, where any type of water feature is a principal or dominant element. The primary focus is on plants, but they will sometimes also house waterfowl, or orn ...

, an

herb garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

, a

vegetable garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

, and a peasant's garden (''bondehave''). The gardens also feature four hedge mazes. The oldest is a beech maze several hundreds of years old. This garden is trimmed every year to prevent the trees from dying. The newest maze is the world's largest

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

maze. It features a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

tower in the centre, and a bridge from the tower provides the exit from the maze. The parks feature a three-meter-tall sundial designed by Danish poet and mathematician, Piet Hein. The estate includes an additional eight square kilometres; is forest, with the rest being farmland. In 1986, a full-sized replica of the castle was built in Hokkaidō, Japan, to hold an aquarium. This was constructed with the permission of the Egeskov's owners at the time, Count Claus and Countess Louisa Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille.

Museums

Egeskov is home to the following

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

s. * A vintage automobile collection * A vintage motorcycle collection * A collection describing the history of agriculture * A collection of flying vehicles * A collection of Falck and other emergency vehicles Most of the castle is open to the public, except for the areas used by

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille Michael Preben, Count Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille ( da, Michael Preben Greve Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille) (born 26 February 1965) is a Danish Count and a landowner. By birth he is a member of an ancient House of Ahlefeldt. Early life He was born as ...

. The museum of

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

and the horse wagon collection is located in the building Ladegård mentioned previously. Three large modern buildings are occupied by the vintage

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarde ...

collection, the vintage

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

collection, the Falck collection, and by a collection of

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurat ...

s and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s. The Falck collection is a collection of vehicles from the Danish rescue company, ''Falck'', emergency vehicles such as fire trucks,

ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...

s, rescue boats, and other assorted

emergency vehicle An emergency vehicle is a vehicle used by emergency services. Emergency vehicles typically have specialized emergency lighting and vehicle equipment that allow emergency services to reach calls for service in a timely manner, transport equipment ...

List of owners

Gallery

File:Egeskov Slot A1.jpg, Exterior view File:Egeskov Slot A2.jpg, Exterior view File:Egeskov Slot A3.jpg, Exterior view File:Egeskov Slot A4.jpg, Exterior view

References

Literature

External links

Official homepage of Egeskov Castle
{{Castles in Denmark Houses completed in 1554 Castles in Denmark Listed buildings and structures in Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality Listed castles and manor houses in Denmark Castles and manor houses on Funen Water castles Museums in the Region of Southern Denmark Historic house museums in Denmark Renaissance architecture in Denmark Tourist attractions in the Region of Southern Denmark 1554 establishments in Denmark Buildings and structures associated with the Brockenhuus family Buildings and structures in Denmark associated with the Brahe family Buildings and structures associated with the Ahlefeldt family Buildings and structures associated with the Bille family Buildings and structures associated with the Ulfeldt family