Visit Palsgaard Manor Park

WHAT YOU CAN EXPERIENCE

When you one day take a stroll through the beautiful park at Palsgaard, you are walking through centuries of vision and dedication. Spread across 31 hectares, the park offers scenic views, rare plants, and fascinating sculptures.

The Beginning of the Garden

We know that the first garden at Palsgaard was called "Keglehaven" (the Bowling Garden). It was a small oval area at the foot of the hill, where the family of the estate played a form of skittles. In the 1840s, Niels Juel Reedtz began developing the landscape garden as we know it today.

Reedtz drained the marshy area, and with the help of landscape gardener Hansen, he made a plan for the garden. The vision was to blur the boundaries between garden and landscape, so that hills, fields, forest and water would serve as a scenic background for the many rare trees and plants.

Grand English Ideas

In the late 1800s, Baron Jarlsberg brought the English landscape architect Henry Ernest Milner to Palsgaard. Together, they shaped the garden into a magnificent and cohesive whole with multiple avenues and a picturesque expression.

Once again, the boundary between the garden and the surrounding fields and forest around was softened. Large groups of trees were planted across the fields, and new paths and avenues were created to connect the garden, fields, forest, and sea.

A Garden for the People

The Schou family continued to develop the garden throughout the 2oth century. The family's landscape architect, I. P. Andersen, was inspired by the English Arts and Crafts Movement.

This movement was known for its romantic and down-to-earth style. The ideal was rural charm, smaller garden, and a sense of intimacy - while also ensuring that the garden could be enjoyed by everyone.

The Schou Foundation's Visions

Today, the Schou Foundation owns the park, and its vision to preserve and further develop the park in harmony with its history and existing values. Among other initiatives, the foundation has restored the estate's original moats. In 2013, the Schou Foundation decided to install sculptures in the park by contemporary Danish artists.

New Plans for the Park

In 2019, the Schou Foundation launched a new comprehensive master plan for the park. Behind the plan are landscape architect Christine Waage Rasmussen and architect Mette Marciniak Mikkelsen.

The first step was to recreate the pond by the Reedtz family memorial stele. Since then, many of the park's beautiful views have been recreated by removing windbreaks from the fields. In the Humlegaarden area, the conifers have been cleared to return to the garden's original style.

Humlegaarden

The historic manor park has recently been expanded by a 10-hectare forest garden, serving as a modern reinterpretation of the romantic landscape park. The forest garden, named Humlegaarden, features winding paths, clearings, and a small woodland pond.

The main attraction, however, is a series of six sculptures by the renowned artist Bjørn Nørgaard: Stelen, Bænken, Fisken, Broen, Ruinen and Grotten. And there are more on the way - by 2027, eight Nørgaard sculptures will be spread throughout Humlegaarden.