Vordingborg Castle Ruins

Vordingborg was the largest royal castle in medieval Denmark, built up from the twelfth century by Valdemar the Great and his successors as the assembly point for campaigns across the Baltic, with an outer wall nearly eight hundred metres long and nine towers. Most of it is gone, but the Goose Tower survives complete, a round brick tower of about 1360 with a gilded goose on its spire, said to have been placed there by Valdemar Atterdag as a gesture of contempt toward the Hanseatic League. It can be climbed. The Danish Castle Centre, a modern museum opened in 2015, is built into the site and covers the medieval Danish castle system, with the ruins and the earth ramparts laid out around it and a botanical garden in the outer ward.

History

King Valdemar I built the castle in 1175 as a defensive fortress and a base for campaigns against the German coast, and Valdemar II likewise used it for expansion into the Baltic and created here in 1241 the reformed legal code known as the Code of Jutland. By the time of Valdemar IV the castle had nine towers and a defensive wall 800 metres long. After the Swedish wars large parts of it were demolished to build a palace for Prince George, son of Frederick III, who never lived there, and that palace too was pulled down in the 18th century; three manors were built nearby, among them Iselingen, a meeting place for artists and scientists in the 19th century (Wikipedia, Vordingborg Castle).

What to look for

• The Goose Tower - a complete brick tower of about 1360, climbable.
• The gilded goose - the figure on the spire and the story behind it.
• Outer wall and rampart lines - the scale of the largest Danish royal castle.
• The Castle Centre museum - built into the site, on the medieval castle system.

When to go

April to October for the ruins and the garden; the museum is open year round with reduced winter hours. Two hours. The tower climb is best on a clear day for the view over the sound.

What to expect

Apart from the tower, the castle is at foundation level and needs the museum to make sense of it. The tower stair is narrow and steep. The modern museum building divides opinion for its intrusion into the site. Winter hours are short.

Nearby

Gavno Castle is north; the bridges to Falster and Mon lie south and east.

Key facts