Voergaard Slot

English

The Castle

The castle was built in three stages, the oldest part dates back to the 14th century.

Behind the wide moat and the thick walls, you will find Denmark’s most beautiful renaissance castle with the finest private art collection and the scariest ghost stories like the lady Ingeborg Skeel who is haunting the castle and the bloodstain that never goes away.

Bishop Stygge Krumpen (Wikipedia)

In the early 16th century (1510) the bishop of Børglum bought Voergaard Castle from the squire (Jakob Andersen of Voergaard) and his nephew and successor Bishop Stygge Krumpen reinforced the place and turned Voergaard into his fortified headquarter.

Inside the moat it was surrounded by a solid ring-wall with a watchmans gallery and machicolations for the archers - openings for the purpose of defence.

Stygge Krumpen was a catholic bishop - supposed to live in celibacy, but Stygge Krumpen lives at Voergaard with a lady - Elsebeth Gyldenstjerne, whom he had stolen from her husband (Knight Bonde Due).

Bishop Stygge Krumpen was a powerful man who gradually came to own or control the entire area of Vensyssel - at least until the Protestant Reformation (started by Martin Luther in 1517 with his 95 teses) in 1536, when the church's properties were taken over by the crown, and the bishop imprisoned for 8 years and Voergaard becomes the property of the king Frederik the Second who makes the castle over the the mother of ...

Ingeborg Skeel (wikipedia) (c. 1545 – 17 October 1604)

A Danish noblewoman, a major land owner and a county sheriff in the Vendsyssel region of northern Jutland.

She resided at Voergaard which she expanded into a fine Renaissance castle from 1588 to 1591 with the help of dutch developer and architect Philip Brandin.

A talented business women, who personally managed her estates.

But as was often the case with strong and independent women of the time, Ingeborg Skeel was met with various accusations of greed, cruelty, and even witchcraft and being in a pact with the devil.

She is said the have cut of the fingers of children collecting grain on her fields, and she is also accused of shoving the architect into the moat drowning him in order no to pay him and for him not to build anymore Renaissance castles.

There is no historical evidence for any of the rumours associated with her name. Nevertheless the lady is still haunting the castle so be ware ...!

Jumping forward to the 20th century and the last owner ...

Count Oberbech-Clausen (wikipedia)

Ejnar Oberbech-Clausen was son of a Danish farmer. At the age of 23 he was admitted to a prestigious boarding school in Paris.

He stayed in France and became manager of a large vineyard belonging to count Chenu-Lafitte and his wife Henriette - daughter of professor, surgeon Jules-Émile Péan the inventor of the hemostatic clamp used in surgical operations.

When count Chenu-Lafitte died, Oberbech-Clausen converting to the Catholic faith, married the widow, took over the vineyards and properties and was himself appointed a Roman count by the Pope.

His wife Henriette died in 1941 during the bombardment of the french city Bordeaux and in 1955 Oberbech-Clausen at the age of 72, bought Voergaard Castle and turned it into what it is today.

The main part of the art collection at Voergaard Castle comes from the Pean and Chenu-Lafitte families. Oberbech-Clausen brought 12 train carriages of art and valuables with him from France.

The Court House

The buildings were first used in the 16th century as a Smithy when Bishop Stygge Krumpen fortified the castle.

Then for a short period it was a residence with two livingrooms and an open fireplace for cooking.

When the noblewoman Ingeborg Skeel took over the castle in 1578 Voergaard had it own courthouse in this buildings. Every Friday a court was held.

In 1820 the court ceased to be used and it was now turned into a wheelwrights workshop. Convenient near to the smithy. Eighty years later a new owner built 2 new properties for the blacksmith and the wheelwright and the buildings became storage room and henhouse.

But in 2005 a union of volunteers called The Living History of Voergaard took responsibility for the dilapidated house and today they use it as a meetingroom - and serve coffee and danish pastry.

The tour

Before we start the tour inside, we will visit the dungeons and/or the toilets.

The tour will be conducted in English with the Castle's own guides. It is not allowed to go on your own, and it is also not allowed to take photos inside - neither with nor without flashlight.

Supplerende materiale fra Voergaard Slots egen hjemmeside:

1510 - 1536

Squire Jakob Andersen of Voergaard makes over the farm to the Bishop of Børglum, Niels Stygge Krumpen. Stygge Krumpen lives at Voergaard with Elsebeth Gyldenstjerne, whom he had stolen from her husband, knight Bonde Due.

During this period, Stygge Krumpen extends and reinforces Voergaard's defences with a view to making the farm the headquarters of his entire diocese, which gradually came to own the entire area of Vendsyssel.

Voergaard is conquered by Skipper Clement's peasant army in 1534 and, after the Reformation in 1536, the farm becomes the property of the king.

1578 - 1588

Frederik II makes over Voergaard to Karen Krabbe.

Ingeborg Skeel takes over Voergaard from her mother Karen Krabbe and starts construction of the renaissance wing, designed by Dutch developer Phillip Brandin. The building is finished in 1588. Frederik II gives Ingeborg Skeel the impressive sandstone portal originally intended for Frederiksborg Slot.

1644 - 1872

With his voluntary army of peasant farmers, Colonel Vogn Vognsen conquerers Voergaard in 1644. Until then, Voergaard had been staff quarters for the Swedish occupying forces.

During the wars from 1627 – 29 and 1643 – 45, Voergaard comes under attack on several occasions. After many years of changing ownership and decay, Peter Brønnum-Scavenius takes over Voergaard in 1872 and embarks on an extensive renovation project. He buys back some of the land which once belonged to the castle before it was sold off.

By his death in 1914, Voergaard is once again one of the largest estates in Denmark with just under 4,800 acres of land.

1955 - 1963

The Danish/French Count E. Oberbech-Clausen buys Voergaard in 1955 and starts extensive restoration. The count had made his fortune in France and married the widow of Compte Chenu-Lafitte.

The countess was the daughter of the famous surgeon Péan and much of the extensive art collection comes from these families.

In 1963, Oberbech-Clausen died and Voergaard was made over to a family trust, the aim of which is to preserve the castle for posterity and keep the art collection open to the public.

In the cramped dungeons, the air is thick with the past horror and torment and fear-inducing stories of a merciless lady of the manor. Terrifying tales of the greedy Ingeborg Skeel, who murdered the castle’s master builder by shoving him into the moat.

Ingeborg’s despicable deeds still seal her fate. Her tormented soul cannot find peace in the grave and she still haunts Voergaard Slot to this day.

Rosedonten

Voergaard's most infamous dungeon – Rosedonten – is situated in the oldest part of the castle. The size of the 'room' means that an adult man can neither stand up straight nor lie stretched out. There are no light or air holes.

There is a shaft from the dungeon to a room two floors above, where it is possible to hear what is being said down there.

Ingeborg Skeel

There is no doubt that Denmark's most famous ghost, Ingeborg Skeel, is a regular visitor to Voergaard Slot. There are countless reports of mysterious happenings and sightings of a white lady making her way around the castle at night.

Ingeborg Skeel was an enterprising and highly skilled business woman and therefore despised by a large percentage of the local population. The stories about her evil misdoings are many. She is rumoured to have drowned architect Philip Brandin in the moat to prevent him from building another castle like Voergaard again.

After Ingeborg's death in 1604, she haunted the castle to such an extent that a priest was called in to perform an exorcism and lay her spirit to rest in a nearby marsh. Despite what we hear about her, Ingeborg is known to have donated a lot of money to poor houses and erected a hospital and a school for the poor people of Sæby.

The bloodstain which cannot be washed off

In the north-eastern tower room, there is a stain on the floor, which is purported to originate from someone killed on that spot. That it is innocent blood that has been shed is evident from the fact that the stain cannot be removed.

The stain was all but forgotten for many years, but when the room was renovated in 1997, the stain reappeared as many years' varnish was sanded off. No matter how much the floor is sanded, the stain always reappears after a few days.

The wild boar skin

In a display case at the castle lies the skin of a wild boar brought down in the castle grounds during the 18th century. As the wild boar was brought down on the border between Voergaard and Hundslund, a minor feud arose, resulting in a sharing of the spoils. Voergaard got the skin. According to legend, the wild boar skin must never be removed from Voergaard Slot or the entire castle will come crashing down to the ground.

Count's Feud

The Count's Feud was a rather complicated war of succession, a war of religion and a war between peasants and nobility that raged in Denmark in 1534–36.

On one side

• • Former King Christian the 2nd

  • Catholic (and protestant)

  • Count Christopher and mercenaries

  • Skipper Clement and peasants/citizens

The deposed, exiled and imprisoned King Christian the 2^nd (Christian Tyrant known for the Stockholm Bloodbath some years earlier) along with Count Christopher and his mercenaries and the peasants lead by Skipper Clement, a privateer from North Jutland.

On the other side

• • Son of King Fr. 1. - Christian the 3rd

  • Protestant Lutheran

  • General Rantzau and mercenaries

  • Nobles

another Christian (later Christian the 3^rd), son of the former king Frederik the 1th , a protestant (Lutheran) supported by German general Rantzau and his mercenaries, the nobilities, but not the catholic bishops who wanted neither of the two!

Skipper Clement lead the peasant riots and lots of manors were attacked and burned down, one of them Voergaard, home of catholic bishop Stygge Krumpen.

Result

Protestant king Christian 3^rd won the civil war, and Skipper Clement was sentenced to death and so were all the peasants who couldn’t prove that they didn’t participate in the fight. Skipper Clement was executed, but the peasant just lost all their properties and became tenant peasants unless they could afford to purchase their own properties back from the king and nobles.

Christian the 3^rd also brought about the Protestant Reformation in Denmark 1536, confiscating all the church’s properties and imprisoning all the bishops, including Bishop Stygge Krumpen.

Engelsk:

Peasant

The open field system of agriculture dominated most of northern Europe during medieval times. Under this system, peasants lived on a manor presided over by a lord or a bishop of the church. Peasants paid rent or labor services to the lord in exchange for their right to cultivate the land.

• • Betaling: taxes:

  • fees in cash or

  • goods

  • Hoveri:

    • Corvée, fra fransk. Unpaid, compulsory labour by a peasant (fæstebonde) in favour of the landlord, estate owner or feudal lord.

      • (including tools, horsepower and labour forces)

In the case of Voergaard under the lady of the manor Ingeborg Skeel.

Tenant-in-chief (Lensmand):

In medieval and early modern Europe the term tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief), denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them from another nobleman or senior member of the clergy. The tenure was one which denoted great honour, but also carried heavy responsibilities as the tenants-in-chief were originally responsible for providing knights and soldiers for the king's feudal army.

Corvée (Hoveri)

is a form of unpaid, unfree labour, that lasts limited periods of time: typically only a certain number of days' work each year.

The obligation for tenant farmers to perform corvée work for landlords on private landed estates was widespread throughout history before the Industrial Revolution. The term is most typically used in reference to medieval and early modern Europe, where work was often expected by a feudal landowner (of their vassals), or by a monarch of their subjects.

Forms of statute labour officially existed until the early twentieth century in Canada and the United States.

Serfdom

is the status of many peasants under feudalism. It was a condition of debt bondage, which developed during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century.

Serfs who occupied a plot of land were required to work for the lord of the manor who owned that land. In return they were entitled to protection, justice, and the right to cultivate certain fields within the manor to maintain their own subsistence.

Serfdom became increasingly rare in most of Western Europe after the Renaissance, though serfdom-like institutions did exist in both Denmark (the stavnsbånd, from 1733 to 1788) and its vassal Iceland (the more restrictive vistarband, from 1490 until 1894).

Historien om Ejner Offer Oberbech-Clausen

instruktion og fotografi Henrik Ploug C. ; manuskript: Connie Ploug

VK-Gruppen/Profo

2010

1 dvd-video (30 min.)

biografier

99.4, Oberbech-Clausen, Ejnar Offer