Eriksholm Castle: A Danish Manor House and Historic Estate
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Denmark
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Denmark–Norway
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Manor House
On this page5 sections
History
Eriksholm Castle is a manor house about 6 km southeast of Holbæk, Denmark, at the foot of the Isefjord inlet. The estate’s history reaches back to 1400, when Peder Jensen owned it under the name Vinderup. Its present main building, designed in the Neoclassical style inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture, was completed in 1788.
Vinderup and the Vasspyd family
The Crown held the estate from 1536 to 1556, after which it belonged to Johan Friis, a chancellor and senior official in royal government. When Friis died in 1567, his sister Karen Friis inherited it with her husband, Bjørn Andersen Bjørn. In 1573, Bjørn ceded the estate to the Crown in exchange for Vitskøl monastery, and the property took the name Bjørnholm. The Crown held it again into the 1580s.
Mads Eriksen Vasspyd owned the estate from 1583 to 1600. In 1600, Erik Madsen Vasspyd acquired it, built a new main building, and gave the estate the name Eriksholm.
From the Pax family to the Brinck-Seidelins
Ownership passed to Karen Christoffersdatter Pax in 1615, then to Christoffer Mogensen Pax in 1625 and Holger Christoffersen Pax in 1650. Admiral Niels Juel acquired Eriksholm in 1682 in exchange for Sæbygaard and held it until his death in 1697. Margrethe Ulfeldt owned it from 1697 to 1702, followed by Gregers Juel from 1702 to 1731 and Peder Gregersen Juel from 1731 to 1752.
Hans Diderik de Brinck-Seidelin acquired the estate in 1752 and tied his properties to an entailed estate, a form of inheritance that keeps property within a family line under prescribed succession. He was raised to the peerage in 1753 under the name Brinck-Seidelin. His son Hans Diderik Hansen de Brinck-Seidelin inherited Eriksholm in 1778 and commissioned Danish architect Caspar Frederik Harsdorff to design a new main building. The Neoclassical house was completed in 1788.
Later ownership and protection
Financial difficulties among large landowners led to Eriksholm’s sale at public auction in 1824. Prime Minister Frederik Julius Falkenskiold Kaas bought it. Later owners included Hans Caspar Jacobsen (1825–1849), Christine Frederikke Petronelle Hansen (1849–1857), Christian Frederik von Holstein (1857–1872), and Engelbrethine Marie (1872–1878).
Frederik Ahlefeldt-Laurvig bought Eriksholm in 1878 and transferred it to his son William, later Denmark’s minister of foreign affairs. Carl William Ahlefeldt Laurvig held the estate until 1923. Elisabeth Danneskiold-Samsøe owned it from 1923 to 1936, Kai Frederik Sophus Ahlefeldt-Laurvig from 1936 to 1972, and Christian William Ahlefeldt-Laurvig from 1972 to 2014. JulRas ApS has held it since 2014. Eriksholm entered Denmark’s register of protected buildings and places in 1918.
Remains
The manor house is built of whitewashed brick and has three wings beneath a black-glazed tile roof. Semicircular connecting buildings join the main wings to lower, short lateral wings. The window frames and portals are made of sandstone from Bornholm. In 1995, the estate comprised 335 hectares of farmland and 331 hectares of forest.
