Gram Castle

Gram Castle, the west wing and behind it the east wing

The Gram Castle (Danish Gram Slot ) is located in the village Gram in southern Denmark on the peninsula Jutland . Today's castle goes back to a moated castle from the Middle Ages and is one of the sights of the region.

historical overview

The south and east wings

The castle dates back to a medieval kongsgård , a fortified farmyard belonging to the royal family. Around 1470 Gram came to the knightly Reventlow family , to whom today's castle goes back to its origins and which expanded Gram to one of the largest estates in southern Denmark. Since 1638 it was in royal possession, who gave the property to Dionysius von Podewils . In 1664, the Reichsfeldherr Hans von Schack, who had come to fame and honor, took over the complex for 14,000 Reichstaler after he had built Schackenborg Castle a few years earlier .

Gram Castle has remained in the possession of the von Schack family to this day and was inhabited by them. It was used for museum purposes and can still be viewed today on weekly tours. A farm shop and holiday apartments were also set up on the castle grounds. It has been in the possession of the Brodersen family since 2007, who converted the estate to ecological development.

Buildings

The court of honor

The lock

The castle is a brick-built, horseshoe-shaped three-wing complex, the components of which date from different centuries. The east wing forms the oldest part of the castle, it was probably built in the early 16th century under the Reventlows. The south wing dates from the time of Hans Schack, the west wing was built around 1752 by his descendant Countess Anna Sophie Schack. The parts of the building, erected over a period of around two centuries, date from the epochs of the Northern Renaissance and the Baroque and have never been standardized in their structural form. In terms of their shape and size, they form a conglomerate, so the garden facade looks more like a castle, while the generously windowed west wing with its symmetrical axes is clearly shaped by the rural Baroque style, while the courtyard with its central frontispiece already appears classical .

Farm yard and garden

The entire system is on a courtyard island in a dammed castle pond. To the north is the area of the former farm yard with its outbuildings, to the south is the palace garden. The park is one of the most spacious in Sønderjylland and its basic form goes back to an 18th century Baroque garden built by Countess Anna Sophie Schack . The main axis leads from the south wing of the castle over a ground floor area and is crossed by a subordinate secondary axis. The garden was redesigned as a landscape park in the 19th century , but the basic structure has been preserved to the present day.