Dragsholm Castle

Dragsholm Castle in Hørve, Denmark, began life around 1215 as a palatium, a palace constructed for the Bishop of Roskilde by the medieval Danish church. Built in the early 13th century during the medieval period, the site is among Denmark’s oldest surviving non-religious buildings and served from the start as an important episcopal residence and administrative centre. Its long history links ecclesiastical power, royal control, and military conflict across many centuries.

During the later Middle Ages the original palace was enlarged and transformed into a fortified castle, while much of the medieval fabric was kept within later rebuildings. In the civil conflict known as the Count’s Feud, fought across Denmark from 1534 to 1536, the castle held out when others on the island of Zealand did not. Forces led by Johann von Hoya laid siege to the stronghold for five months, but Dragsholm remained the only castle on Zealand to resist Count Christoffer’s armies.

The Protestant Reformation and the Crown’s seizure of church property in 1536 placed Dragsholm under royal ownership. From that year until 1664 the castle served as a state prison for noble and church prisoners. The northeast corner tower was fitted with cells, and named inmates included Joachim Rønnow, the last Catholic Bishop of Roskilde, and James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, who was held for many years and died at the castle in 1578.

War returned to the region in the mid 17th century. Swedish forces occupied Dragsholm in 1657 and the castle suffered demolition and blowing up in 1660, leaving the site in ruins for a number of years. In 1664 King Frederick III transferred the damaged property to the royal treasurer Heinrich Müller, who began restoration work that set the stage for the next long phase of ownership.

In 1694 Frederik Christian Adeler acquired Dragsholm and from about 1697 the Adeler family rebuilt the complex in the Baroque manner that largely defines the castle’s present exterior. Members of the family later undertook major local projects; Georg Frederik Otto Zytphen-Adeler was involved in draining the Lammefjord and in 1868 the family restored the older name Dragsholm for the estate. The property was made a barony in 1784 and took the name Adelersborg in 1785.

The Adeler line or its fortunes ended in 1932, and the castle reverted to state control before being sold to J. F. Bøttger, with the Central Land Board and the National Land Law Committee recorded in the transfer. Since 1937 the Bøttger family has managed the property and adapted it for modern uses, carrying out a series of restorations and conversions. Interior work has been repeated over time; a significant restoration after World War I, around 1919, imparted a Late Romantic character to several salons and ballrooms that remains visible today. Local lore attached to the site speaks of three ghosts, commonly described as a grey lady, a white lady, and the spirit of Lord Bothwell.