moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...
Dronninglund
Dronninglund is a town with a population of 3,487 (1 January 2022)North Jutland peninsula in north-western Denmark. It is open to the public and houses a significant art collection.
History
Early history
Voergaard's recorded history goes back to 1481. At the outbreak of the Count's Feud it was owned by
Stygge Krumpen Stygge Krumpen ( – 21 January 1551) was a Danish clergyman and bureaucrat, who was the secretary of king Christian II of Denmark and the last Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Børglum from 1533 to 1536, having been coadjutor bishop since 1519. H ...
In 1578, King Frederick II ceded the property to Karen Krabbe in exchange for Nygaard, an estate located between Vejle and Kolding. Krabbe's daughter,
Ingeborg Skeel
Ingeborg Skeel (c. 1545 – 17 October 1604) was a Denmark, Danish noblewoman, a major land owner and a county sheriff in the Vendsyssel region of northern Jutland, Denmark. She resided at Voergaard Castle, Voergaard, a large estate which she expan ...
, took over the property from her mother and carried out an expansion which was completed in 1588.
Over the following two centuries, Voergaard changed hands many times. Much of the land was sold.
Scavenius era
In 1872 it was purchased by Peder Brønnum Scavenius, a politician and land owner, who re-acquired much of the land which had previously been sold. At the time of his death in 1914, the estate covered 1,944.4 ha of land, making it one of the largest in Denmark at the time. The next owner was his son, Erik Scavenius, Danish Prime Minister during World War II, who owned Voergaard from 1914 to 1945.
An art venue
In 1955 Voergaard was acquired by Ejnar Oberbech-Clausen, a Dane who had lived in France since 1906 where he had become a count through his marriage with Marie Henriette Chenu-Lafitte, the widow of his former employer, and an Imperial Count in the Holy Roman Empire. Chenu-Lafitte was the daughter of
Jules-Émile Péan
Jules-Émile Péan (29 November 1830 – 20 January 1898) was one of the great French surgeons of the 19th century.
Péan was born in 1830 in Marboué, french department of Eure-et-Loir. He studied at the college of Chartres and then studied m ...
, one of the great French surgeons of the 19th century, and owned an extensive art collection which originated both from her father and deceased husband.
The couple owned several châteaus in the area around Bordeaux but after his wife's death, in an air raid in 1941, Oberbech-Clausen moved to Paris and later decided to return to his native Denmark. He acquired Voergaard and, with approval from the French state, brought 12 train cars of art with him back to Denmark. He undertook a comprehensive and costly restoration of the castle which went on for several years. After his death in 1963, the castle and collections were passed to a foundation and opened to the public.
Architecture
Voergaard is a two-winged, L-shaped castle built in red brick in the Renaissance style. The east wing is flanked by two octagonal corner towers and penetrated by a gateway. Its sandstone portal was a gift from King Frederick II and originally created for Frederiksborg Castle.
File:Schloss Voergaard.JPG, The east wing
File:Voergaard Slot.JPG, The north tower and gable of the east wing viewed from the north
File:Voergaard Slot (3).JPG, The north wing
File:Schloss Voergaard, Nordflügel.jpg, The gable of the north wing
El Greco
Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...
Frans Hals
Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem.
Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...
.
The furniture includes pieces which have belonged to Louis XIV and Louis XVI.
Park
The large park was originally laid out in 1768. In 1955 it was re-designed in the French style. Buildings in the grounds include a half-timbered building which in the 18th and 19th century was used by Voer Birk,a manor court where people who had committed local misdemeanors and petty crimes would be dealt with