Voergaard Castle

Voergaard Castle, the east wing

The Voergaard Castle (Danish Voergaard slot ) located in the north of Denmark on the island of Vendsyssel-Thy in the municipality Brønderslev . It is one of the largest Renaissance castles in the region and is owned by a foundation. The complex, sometimes referred to as the haunted castle due to its history , is a well-known attraction in North Jutland and is open to visitors.

history

historical overview

The castle dates back to a medieval manor , which came into the possession of the Børglum monastery under the knight Jakob Andersen in 1510 and was subsequently converted into a moated castle by Bishop Niels Stygge Krumpen . After the Reformation , Voergaard passed into royal possession in 1536. In 1578 Frederick II transferred the property to Karen Krabbe. Under her daughter Ingeborg Skeel, the castle got its present form. In the course of several Danish-Swedish wars, the castle was repeatedly besieged in the 17th century and temporarily occupied by Swedish troops. From 1686 to 1791 it was owned by the Danish Reetz family.

Voergaard in the 19th century, drawing by JT Hansen

During the 19th century the owners of Voergaard changed several times. In 1872 the property went to Peter Brønnum-Scavenius, who had the castle restored and enlarged the estate to around 2,000 hectares until his death in 1914. Due to a land consolidation carried out in 1933 , the estate was parceled out and sold; the castle, the farmyard and the remaining lands were sold to the French-Danish Count Ejnar Oberbech-Clausen in 1955. At Voergaard, the count brought together a large part of the family's art possessions, including pieces from the property of the French kings Louis XIV and Louis XVI. works by Goya , Rubens and El Greco also count. After Oberbech-Clausen's death, Voergaard and the art treasures collected here passed into the hands of a family foundation that has managed the property to the present day. Voergaard is open to visitors, and medieval markets and similar events are occasionally held on the site .

In 2008 the Goya painting The Crazy One and a Rubens portrait of Maria de 'Medici were stolen. The Danish domestic intelligence service PET was only able to secure the pictures years later with the help of a whistleblower. In 2015 they returned to the Voergaard collection.

The haunted castle of Voergaard

There are some local sagas and legends surrounding Voergaard Castle , which make it known as the haunted castle . Most of the stories go back to the previous owners, Bishop Niels Krumpen and Ingeborg Skeel, who were decried as despotic tyrants in the region in the 16th century. In the north wing of the castle there is a dungeon that goes back to Bishop Krumpen, the smallest cell of which was notorious as the Rosedonten and in which a man can neither stand nor lie. Ingeborg Skeel was told that she had the builder of the east wing, Philipp Brandin , drowned in the moat; Depending on the interpretation, either so that he could not build another castle in the splendor of Voergaard or simply to save himself payment. Ingeborg Skeel, whose reputation was probably based primarily on defamation on the part of her subordinates, is said to have been sighted several times later as a haunted white woman , whose help a priest had to be called in to tame her. Another anecdote that underlines Voergaard's reputation as a haunted castle is a dark stain on the floorboards of the north-eastern tower room, which is said to be the blood of an innocently murdered man and which, despite all attempts at grinding, allegedly cannot be removed.

Building description

View of the gable wall of the north wing, the east wing is hidden behind the trees

The castle lies on an almost square island and is surrounded by a wide moat, the former ramparts have been completely leveled. It is an L-shaped, two-winged brick building with two courtyard-side stair towers and two residential towers as an extension of the east wing. The origin of the building is the castle-like north wing, which still hides the remains of the episcopal fortress from the beginning of the 16th century and ends in a Gothic stepped gable in the west .

Drawing of the castle portal by JT Hansen, 19th century

The main wing of the palace is the richly decorated east wing, it was built under Ingeborg Skeel from 1586, allegedly by the Dutch master builder Philipp Brandin , in the style of the Northern Renaissance . The two-storey building above a base with a basement is structured by twelve window axes, and pavilion-like residential towers are attached to the outer ends . The entire facade is decorated with rich sandstone decorations. The portal was originally intended for the royal Frederiksborg Palace , but came to the court of Ingeborg Skeels as a gift from King Friedrich II and was installed on Voergaard. The interiors of the palace represent a foray into European art history and their furnishings go back to the epochs from the Renaissance to Classicism . A special feature is in addition to the so-called Golden Room with its leather wallpaper which the Order of Malta dedicated chapel in the north wing, which was set up under Count Oberbech-Clausen, himself a member of the Maltese, only in the 20th century.

The gardens of the castle are now largely overgrown and mainly consist of a few lawns and flower areas on the castle island, as well as the promenade leading around the moat. To the east of the castle is the facility of the former farm yard, from which the Dorfstrasse leads in the direction of the Voerer church, which once formed the patronage church of the Voergaard estate.