Holckenhavn Castle

Holckenhavn Castle sits on the shore of Holckenhavn Fjord, a narrow inlet of the Great Belt, just south of Nyborg on Funen’s east coast. The present Renaissance manor was constructed in the late 1500s and early 1600s by a succession of three owners. Before taking its current name in 1672—when Eiler Holck bought the property and established the Barony of Holckenhavn—it was called Ulfeldtsholm and later Ellensborg. The estate has remained in the Holck family ever since.

The property’s earliest recorded name was Kogsbølle, and its history stretches back to the late 1300s, when it belonged to Anders Jacobsen Ulfeldt. The Ulfeldt family held it for over two centuries. The original house stood farther inland, but around 1580 it was relocated to its present spot beside the fjord and renamed Ulfeldtsholm.

In 1616, Chancellor of the Realm Jakob Ulfeldt sold the estate to Ellen Marsvin after he acquired Egeskov Castle. Marsvin, widowed for the second time in her late thirties, turned to farming and became one of the largest landowners of her era. She added two wings to the castle and undertook lavish interior renovations. Marsvin was the mother of Kirsten Munk, who married King Christian IV until she fell out of favor for infidelity and left him. When Kirsten Munk died in 1658, the castle passed to her daughter Leonora Christina. Leonora’s husband, former Steward of the Realm Corfitz Ulfeldt, had sided with Sweden during its invasion of Denmark. For this treason, the couple was imprisoned at Hammershus fortress on Bornholm. After their release in 1661, they lived at Ellensborg until they fled the country in 1662, and the estate was seized by the crown.

Following its confiscation, Ellensborg sat empty for nearly a decade. In 1672, it was granted to Eiler Holck, the commandant at Kronborg. He renamed it Holckenhavn and created the Barony of Holckenhavn, which was dissolved in 1921. The Holck family still owns the property.

The castle sits on a nearly square bank and forms a four-winged Renaissance complex built over three generations. The north and east wings, along with the gate wing, were finished by 1585; the large bell tower was added later, likely under master builder Domenicus Badiaz. Ellen Marsvin built the west wing in 1631 and a low south-facing gate wing in 1634.