Egeskov Castle

Denmark’s best preserved Renaissance water castle, put up by Frands Brockenhuus in 1554, when the Count’s Feud and the upheaval of the Reformation had most Danish nobles building homes they could defend. It stands on oak piles in a lake five metres deep, reached originally only by drawbridge. Legend says a whole oak forest went into the foundation, which is what the name means. Two long buildings are joined by a double wall over a metre thick, containing secret staircases and a well, so defenders could abandon one house and fight on from the other. Artillery ports, scalding holes and arrow slits remain.