Harridslevgaard/Harritslevgaard Slot, Skovby Sogn, Nordfyns Kommune

Harridslevgaard slot/ photo gb

Harridslevgaard slot is mentioned the first time in 1231, where it belonged to the king." Haræslef" is mentioned in King Valdemars jordebog of 1232 as one of the king's castles. It had then a value of 144 mark gold.

In the early Middle Ages "Haræslef " was according to the legend a sørøverborg (pirate's castle) . At that time the sea went right up to the castle with a free view across the sea and the pirates hang out lamps to fool the ships to come close to the coast, where they could enter the ships and rob everything they wished for. But there were so many complaints about the pirates at Harritslevgaard that the king took action and had them all executed.

 In 1542 Jørgen Svave got a livbrev of the manor (royal guarantee for ownership for life) and he succeeded in buying it as a free estate in 1560, where the document says that it was sold to the king's vasal Jørgen Svave by Frederic 2.

Harritslevgaard slot/wikipedia

Rigsråd Breide Rantzau (1556-1618) bought the old royal administration-center Harridslevgaard in 1589 from Jørgen Svave. The deal went possibly on under shady shapes. The Svave family led process about the sale still ten years after the sale. Breide however did not care. The spirited aristocrat was one of the young Chr. 4's loyal followers and also a good  svirebroder ("feasting brother"). It was always a great feast when Breide accompanied the young king on his travels to Norway and England around year 1600. Breide Rantzau belonged to the wealthy and powerful Rantzau-family who came to Denmark in connection to Grevens fejde in 1533-36, where Breide Rantzau's grandfather Johan Rantzau was Chr. 3's army chief.  The family was - especially at Funen -  rewarded for its loyalty to the king with several manors like Rantzausholm (Brahetrolleborg), Hellerup, Hindemae and Harridslevgaard. Breide Rantzau broke down the old castle and built a new Renaissance building which was finished in 1606,in three storeys and with a large octagonal stair tower by the castle yard.

medieval feast/wikipedia

Breide's daughter-in-law, the beautiful fru Anne Lykke received her royal lover, Chr. 4's eldest son (the chosen Prince) on Harridslevgaard, while she was the owner in 1623-31. Anne Lykke lived in 1623 at Harritslevgaard after her husband Kaj Rantzau's early death and the rich widow cast her pretty eyes on the Crown Prince, the young Christian, while his father Chr. 4 without luck took part in the 30-years' war in North Germany. 

 At his homecoming after the painful defeat at Lutter am Barenberg Chr. 4 let in 1626 Anne Lykke arrest and put in prison at Kronborg. The acussation was that she by "druk og letfærdighed" (drinking and frivolity) had disturbed the Crown Prince in his leadership of the government in the absence of Chr. 4. After in vain having tried to start a case against Anne Lykke the king had in 1628 to set her free, if she would promise to stay at her manor. On her release in 1628 she settled at the manor Hellerup at east Funen, while her other estates were left to members of the Ulfeldt and Rantzau family. She married in 1629 one of Jacob Ulfeldt's many sons,  the learned Knud Ulfeldt. Anne Lykke died in 1641. After her came several owners to Harridslev, until the castle in 1829 was sold to greve Bernstorff-Gyldensteen. The big adjoining land still belongs to Gyldensteen, while the main building was sold to other side.

The owner Christiane Hoppe Hagedorn expands in ab. 1750 the adjoining land, rebuilds the main building (1753) and establishes a stutteri. She was a diligent lady of the castle and she now haunts the castle as the white lady. Harridslevgaard came after the introduction of the absolutism  in 1660 soon in bourgeois hands and changed owners up till 1829 where grev Bernstorff at Gyldensteen bought the castle, and it was combined with the neighbouring estate Gyldensteen northeast of Bogense. 1922 At the county's transition to a free estate was sold 800 tønder land from Harritslevgaard's earlier adjoining land for the founding of 66 smallholdings. 1963 Director/Antique dealer Frank Nicolaisen buys Harridslevgaard with park, but without farming from grev Carl Johan Bernstorff of Gyldensteen. While Frank Nicolaisen was the owner he started from 1963 a thorough restoration.

The family Schimko bought Harridslevgaard in 1985 and continued the restoration. In 1995 they opened the castle to the public.

Harridslevgaard slot/ gb

Only a little is left from the original manor except the sandstone fireplaces and the room divisions. In the reconstructed manor environment you can walk from the  Pigekammer (servantmaid's chamber) in the basement and the large kitchen and via beautiful rooms and living rooms up to the magnificent riddersal (Knights Hall), which fills out the whole upper storey of the east wing. The present pretty and right inventory are new antiquities, bought with a sense of a castle's historic inventory.

The knights hall of 400 kvm  is the largest privately owne in Denmark and is very imposing. From the Knights Hall is access to two hemmeligheder ( medieval toilets in the wall).  In the north wing is "the blue room" with marbled, handcarved panels in an exceptionel blue room -  and the modern hemmelighed is also in blue. The Winter Hall in the east wing with its original richly ornamented sandstone fireplace is remarkable. In the north wing is also "the red living room" with a well preserved vaulted ceiling and pretty red wallpapers. In the basement are among others two rooms called "jagtstuen" (hunting room) and "badstuen" (bath room). Here was originally laundry and bakery . It is now furnished into an  exclusive bathroom and hall. In the medieval cellar is a vaulted kitchen which still 400 years later is serving its original purpose. From the kitchen is a downturn to a socalled dungeon, which probably was the old cold storage and wine cellar. At the kitchen wall are the traces of a spiral staircase, which connected the kitchen to "the red room" above.

Mysteries at Harridslevgaard.
Harridslevgaard has - together with other mysterious happenings on Funen - made the background of a book "Guide til det okkulte Danmark" by the author Bo B. Hamilton-Wittendorff. Peculiar occassions sometimes happens.A visiting woman was scared to death by a little girl who had been chasing her, until she suddenly disappeared out in the blue. The woman described the little blonde girl, dressed in something which looked like an oldfashioned nightgown.Rumbling from a wagon is heard in the castle yard and the sound of horse hooves, attributed to a former bailiff who rides a horse with luminous red eyes. The white lady is walking around in the castle guarding her goods and gold. She is said to be fru Christiane Hoppe who lived from 1687 till 1769. She was the lady of the castle and the owner of a stutteri.

Mill House, Harridslevgaard slot/gb

The present owners , Inge Lise and Hermann Schimko, took over the castle in 1985 and made it open to the public. Harridslevgaard was rather dilapidated at that time, but after 15 years of restoration the castle looks like Breide Rantzau's pretty Renaissance castle. The buildings are now listed and each repair has to be done by appointment with the National Museum. Some details came up during the restoration -  in the red living room was a hatch in the bottom of a cupboard, under this a spiral staircase leading down to the dungeon and a secret passage, which was an escape way for the lord and lady in the Middle Ages.  The secret passage went 500 meters out into the field to Loddenhøj or Palnatokehøj where Palnatoke supposedly was buried. It was said that Palnatoke owned "Haræslef" in the first half of the 900s.

Palnatoke was a legendary hero from Funen who is mentioned in Saxo Grammaticus and in the Icelandic Jomsvikingernes saga. According to the last mentioned Palnatoke was the man who founded Jomsborg and created the laws, and also according to Jomsvikingernes saga he was a son of Palne Tokesen and his wife Ingeborg, a daughter of Otto Jarl. Palnatoke is possibly a historical person who was added a series of vandresagn.(walking legends)
Palnatoke was probably a nickname for Toke Pallesen (also: Toke Palnesen), another possibility is den polske Toke (the Polish Toke) or den polske tolk (the Polish interpreter). The name is not a usual Nordic name. 

(see my blog: Medieval Danish and European families for Toke Palnesen , Palne Tokesen and  Toke Trylle Palnesen, who was the father of Skjalm Hvide.)

Park, Harridslevgaard slot/gb

The family Schimko opened ten years ago the castle to the public by an arrangement and the interest from the public was overwhelming. Since then there have been permanent opening hours and arrangements like firm parties,conferences and weddings. People can rent historic lackeys uniforms for the servants and they can dance in Denmarks largest privately owned Knights Hall.

The old mill house lies at the driveway to Harridslevgaard. The manor is surrounded by a small park with pretty peacocks.

Each year Harridslevgaard has a Christmas market. The castle is by appointment open all year for tours of large groups. And it is possible to get married at the castle. The various rooms can be rented for conferences, meetings, weddings and dinner parties. 

Sources:
Danmarks slotte og herregårde , Niels Peter Stilling, Politiken, 1997, 
Slotte og herregårde i Danmark, Jytte Ortmann, 2000
www.harridslevgaard.dk 
Harritslevgaard, wikipedia


photo: grethe bachmann

photo mm: wikipedia