Skjoldenæsholm Castle is a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

located 11 kilometres north-east of

Ringsted Ringsted is a city located centrally in the Danish island of Zealand. It is the seat of a municipality of the same name. Ringsted is situated approximately 60 km from Copenhagen. Tourism and transport Ringsted is one of Denmark's busies ...

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 ...

, standing on the west side of one of the many lakes which dominate the area. The Neoclassical main building, possibly by Philip de Lange, is now run as a hotel and conference centre while the grounds play host to both the

Skjoldenæsholm Tram Museum Skjoldenæsholm Tram Museum (Danish language, Danish: Sporvejsmuseet Skjoldenæsholm), also referred to as the Danish Tramway Museum, is an open-air museum dedicated to vintage trams and buses. It is located south-west of Copenhagen, Denmark, betw ...

(''Sporvejsmuseet Skjoldenæsholm'') and a

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...

. The rest of the land is mostly

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

ed.

History

The first castle

Originally located to the south of the current house, Skjoldenæs is first recorded in the 1340s when it was owned by the crown and referred to as a "castle of considerable size". King Christopher II mortgaged the estate to

John III, Count of Holstein-Plön John III of Holstein-Plön (c. 1297–1359), called ''John the Mild'', was a Count of Schauenburg and Holstein-Plön and Holstein-Kiel, ruling Holstein-Plön (1312–1316 and again 1350–1359) and Holstein-Kiel (1316–1359). Together with Count ...

(''Johan den Milde''). King Valdemar IV can with certainty be linked to the locale, in either 1346 or 1348, when he besieged the castle.

Müller's house

The medieval castle was demolished in 1567 but a castle bank surrounded by moats can still be seen at the site today. The estate was crown land for an extended period of time, held in fee by various members of the Danish nobility until 1662 when it was ceded to the King's ''rentemester'' Henrik Müller (1609-1692). Over the next few years, between 1663 and 1666, Müller completed a new manor house, half-timbered and in one storey, at the site of the current main building.

Danneskiold-Laurvig era

After Müller's death in 1682, the estate was reacquired by the king, Christian V, who the following year gave it to his half-brother Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, who also owned the Gyldenløve Mansion in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

as well as several other estates in Denmark and in Norway. After his death, Skjoldenæsjolm remained in his family for almost a century. Count Ferdinand Anton Danneskiold-Laurvig, Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve's son, owned the property from 1720 until his death in 1754. Anna Joachimine Danneskiold-Laurvig née Ahlefeldt (1717–1795) the widow after his son, replaced the old main wing with the one seen today in 1766.

Bruun de Neergaards era

Anna Joachimine Danneskiold-Laurvig was the last member of the family to own Skjoldenæsholm, selling the property in 1794, shortly before her death the following year. The buyer was Anna Marie Bruun de Neergaard (née Møller) and Skjoldenæsholm has remained in the ownership of members of the Bruun de Neergaard family.

Today

The main building was in 1971 converted into a conference centre. The estate covers of land, including Skjoldenæsholm Tramway Museum which was founded in 1978 and a golf course. The rest consists mainly of forest. In 1998, the castle was setting for

Thomas Vinterberg Thomas Vinterberg (; born 19 May 1969) is a Danish film director who, along with Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking, which established rules for simplifying movie production. He is best known for the films ''The Celeb ...

's film '' The Celebration'', one of the central works of the Danish

Dogme 95 Dogme 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" ( da, kyskhedsløfter). These were rules to create films ...

group.

Architecture

The sober Neoclassical main wing from 1766 stands in washed, yellow brick. The architect is not known but may have been Philip de Lange. Originally, the red

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

also covered the three-bay median risalits, found on both sides of the main wing, which received their triangular pediment in connection with a major renovation in 1703. The renovation also added a new east wing and gave the old half-timbered west wing a new facade in masonry towards the courtyard, which matched it. The east wing is connected to a surviving part of Müller's half-timbered timber-framed house.. The interior displays several fine examples of 18th-century period decorations.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skjoldenaesholm Castle Manor houses in Ringsted Municipality Hotels in Denmark Listed castles and manor houses in Denmark Listed buildings and structures in Ringsted Municipality Houses completed in 1766 Timber framed buildings in Ringsted Municipality