Gavnø Castle

Gavnø Castle is a castle situated near Næstved in the south of the Danish main island of Zealand. The present building dates from the Rococo period.

South-east of Næstved lies the island of Gavnø, on which the Rococo palace of Gavnø stands. A fortified castle already stood on the island under King Valdemar II of Denmark. In 1402 the Dominican nunnery of St Agnes was founded on this site by Margaret I. After the Reformation the convent passed into the possession of the Crown. In the 17th century the estate belonged to the imperial councillor Hans Lindenov, later to Admiral Niels Trolle. In 1682 it passed to the Thott family, one of the oldest Swedish noble families, whose descendants own it to this day. Under Count Otto Thott the present castle was built between 1755 and 1758 on the site of the earlier manor house. He laid the foundation of the art and book collection. The present owner is Baron Otto Reedtz-Thott.

The stone bridge over the river Suså as the approach to the castle was built after the Baltic Sea storm surge of 1872, which had destroyed the previous wooden bridge of 1766. Here, besides the well-known tulip cultivation in the castle park, there is a butterfly house, the great Reedtz-Thott painting collection and a library, but also a small fire brigade museum.

The castle chapel is still the chapel of the former convent. Under Admiral Niels Trolle and his wife Helle Rosenkrantz it was newly decorated. The altar contains, in the form of an ancestral table, 64 coats of arms of the couple's ancestors. In 1913 the chapel was thoroughly restored.

Machine-translated from “Schloss Gavnø” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Gavnø Castle ranks #3,155 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #38 of the 53 mapped in Denmark. Founded 1758, it is older than 17% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 556 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,266 times in the last 60 days, more than 55% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Næstved, 6 km away. See how Denmark compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in German) ↗