Egeskov Castle

Egeskov is Denmark's best-preserved Renaissance water castle. It rises straight out of a small lake in the south of Funen, on foundations of oak piles. According to legend, a whole forest of oaks was felled to build them, which gave the estate its name, "oak forest". The estate is recorded from 1405. The present building was completed in 1554 by Frands Brockenhuus, in the uneasy years after the civil war of the Count's Feud and the Reformation, when Danish nobles built their houses to be defended. From outside it looks like a late Gothic stronghold. Two long brick houses are joined by a double wall more than a metre thick, so that defenders could give up one house and fight on from the other. Inside the wall are hidden stairs and a well. Round corner towers, gun ports, arrow slits and scalding holes complete the defences. Originally the only way in was a drawbridge.

After many changes of owner in its first centuries, the castle has stayed in one family line since 1784, when the Bille-Brahes acquired it. Since 1882 it has belonged to the counts Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille, who still live in part of it. The rest is open to visitors. The rooms hold a massive iron chest from at least the 16th century and a large portrait of Admiral Niels Juel, who defeated the Swedish fleet at Køge Bay in 1677.

Egeskov is unusual in being a family castle and a full day out at the same time. Around it spreads a park of about 20 hectares with a Renaissance garden, a fuchsia garden that is one of the largest in Europe, water and herb gardens, and four hedge mazes. One of them is a beech maze several centuries old, and another is described as the largest bamboo maze in the world. There is also a three-metre sundial designed by the poet and mathematician Piet Hein. In the grounds, large halls hold collections of vintage cars, motorcycles, aircraft and Falck rescue vehicles, and the old farm buildings house an agricultural museum. The castle is best seen in the season when the gardens are open.

Getting there

Egeskov lies about 2 km from the village of Kværndrup, which has a railway station, and about 15 km from Svendborg in southern Funen. Odense Hans Christian Andersen Airport (ODE) is about 35 km away, but it has few scheduled flights, so most travellers arrive by rail or road through Odense.