Esrum Abbey

Esrum was founded in 1151 and became one of the wealthiest Cistercian houses in Scandinavia, with vast landholdings across Zealand and daughter houses as far as the Baltic coast. After the Reformation it was dissolved and the buildings were pulled down for materials, largely to build Kronborg, leaving one wing of the monastic complex standing. That wing now holds exhibitions on Cistercian life and the abbey's role in the medieval economy, with the foundations of the great church marked out in the grass beside it. In the grounds are a reconstructed medieval herb garden, a working watermill on the stream, and the visitor centre for the Esrum Lake and Gribskov nature area, with a brewery producing beer to a monastic recipe.

What you actually see

• The surviving monastic wing - all that escaped demolition after the Reformation.
• Church foundations in the grass - the outline of the vanished abbey church.
• A medieval herb garden - reconstructed monastic planting.
• The working watermill - restored and turning on the abbey stream.

When to go

April to October; winter opening is limited to weekends and holidays. Two to three hours including the garden and mill. Medieval market events run several times a year and are the busiest days.

Honest expectations

Only one wing survives, so the scale of the original abbey has to be imagined from foundations. Winter hours are short. Exhibitions are aimed partly at school groups. The site is combined with a nature centre, which dilutes the historical focus.

Nearby

Lake Esrum is at the door; Gribskov forest runs west and south.