On our final day in Denmark we had big plans! We were going to visit Egeskov Castle and then make our way to a famous cliff near Copenhagen called Stevns Klint. It turns out there is so much to see at Egeskov Castle that we spent the better part of the day there! First off, the castle itself is gorgeous!
This original structure of the castle was built from 1540 to 1554. According to legend, it took an entire forest of oak trees to build the foundation, hence the name Egeskov, which means “oak forest”. This is the best preserved Renaissance castle in all of Europe.
Part of the castle has a museum of famous clothing from various royal families. It wasn’t all that exciting to be honest, but this one dress did stand out, as it was the last dress owned by Queen Marie Antoinette, before she lost her head. It was unfinished for some reason, and was given to a lady’s maid, who kept it until her death. It changed hands several times before ending up here in 1850.
This elaborate trunk for the royal treasure dates to the 16th century.
In the castles “Hunting Hall”, there is this display of poison arrows and two comically tiny bows. The literature in the hallway said the arrow tips are still coated in poison.
There is one large room which has the biggest doll house I’ve ever seen, known as Titania’s Palace. English painter and former army officer Sir Nevile Wilkinson built the miniature palace when his daughter told him she had seen fairies in their garden, and wanted her father to build them a nice house to live in.
It took 15 years to build, and became famous after thousands saw it on display in the UK.
Even the future queen, Princess Elizabeth, visited the display. The doll house went up for auction in 1978, and was purchased by the Lego Foundation. After extensive renovations, Lego loaned it to Egeskov in 2007. As big as it is, I don’t see that loan ever ending.
Hans Christian Andersen visited the castle twice. He was born in 1805 in Odense, about 20 miles north of Egeskov. He apparently was known to cut little paper dresses everywhere he went.
This display, which sits adjacent to Titania’s Palace, shows off some of the many paper dresses he created. I thought he just wrote books!
The top floor of the castle, which is basically the attic, has a display of old Danish toys dating from the early 1900’s.
These included toys made by Lego. Funny, these don’t look like Lego’s to me!
In the attic is this statue called the “Wooden Man”, which is linked to a terrible legend. It is said that if this statue is removed from the cushion, the entire castle will sink into the pond on Christmas night. In 1960, a previous countess agreed to let the National Museum of Denmark borrow the statue for 6 months, but asked for it back after just 14 days since the castle was said to start creaking and groaning, and the walls began to shake. Once the statue was back in place, the castle was at peace.
If you know me, you know how hard it was to not jump over the barrier and move the statue. Just a few feet to the left or right, for the sake of science.
We then ventured out into the extensive gardens spread around the castle.
They even had some topiary figures set up just across from the drawbridge, which was unfortunately under renovation.
The grounds have several museums, including one for classic automobiles. This pink car is actually one of the first electric cars, produced between 1915 and 1923.
Milburn Light Electric made more than 4,000 electric cars, which had a range of 100km and could travel as fast as 50km/h.
This specific car was one of the very first produced, and it was specifically made for First Lady Edith Wilson, the wife of President Woodrow Wilson. It doesn’t have a steering wheel, opting for a stick to steer it. I honestly had no idea they had electric cars so long ago.
When I was 27 I “almost” bought one of these. I still love the look of the DeLorean! This one was in excellent shape!
Our last stop before departing was this walkway among the trees. This place really has something for everybody!
One last look at the beautiful Egeskov Castle from the tree tops.
On our way out we ran across this group of Peahens and Peacocks, blocking the exit. They certainly aren’t afraid of people!
As stated previously, if you plan to visit, give it at least 5 hours, including lunch. There are several spots to eat on the grounds. We departed Denmark the next morning, and just like our last return flight, we flew right over Greenland, and it was remarkably clear once again!
We really need to move Greenland up on our list of places to travel!
As always, thanks for reading about our trip, and we hope we have left you with some ideas for travel of your own! We will be staying home for awhile, as our next big trip isn’t until March 2025, when we head to Australia to complete our Covid interrupted trip from 2020.
