Spøttrup Borg or Spøttrup Manor is a Renaissance castle located in western Salling by Spøttrup Lake near Rødding.
Bispens farm in Vestsalling
Spøttrup is first mentioned in its own right in 1404, when the knight Johan Skarpenberg donated his farm in Spøttrup, including Spøttrup Lake, to Viborg Diocese. After the takeover, the bishops let the estate be governed by bailiffs who took up residence at Spøttrup. The bailiffs were often trained as priests. One example is Mr. Laurids, who became a priest in Lem after his time at Spøttrup, and Spøttrup’s last bailiff, Hr. Anders Jensen, became the first Protestant pastor in Rødding and Krejbjerg.
Viborg Diocese already owned land in Vestsalling before the acquisition of Spøttrup, including Krøgeborg at Krejbjerggård in Krejbjerg Parish. After the acquisition of Spøttrup, the bishop gathered his activities in the area at Spøttrup Estate in Rødding Parish. This meant that Krøgeborg was demolished or fell into disrepair, and today only a rampart remains.
Apart from the names of former bailiffs, there is not much information about Spøttrup in the 15th century, so it is only when Spøttrup Castle was built that we begin to hear more about the estate.
From farm to fortification
Since the reign of Margrethe I (1387-1412), it had been forbidden in Denmark for private individuals to build fortifications, including churchmen. With the installation of King Hans in 1481, a passage was introduced into the king’s charter stating that his majesty could no longer forbid “any man, spiritual or secular, in any kingdom to fortify or build his farms for the benefit of himself and the kingdom”. This meant that the Bishop of Viborg began work on fortifying the estate in Spøttrup.
There are no clear historical sources that mention the construction of Spøttrup Borg. It is therefore not possible to say exactly when the building was completed, but the structural details of Spøttrup Castle indicate that the castle was completed in the mid-1520s at the latest. When it was built, Spøttrup was one of the kingdom’s most modern fortresses. The ramparts and double moats were built in an attempt to keep cannons away from the castle.
The reason for the construction of Spøttrup as a fortification was first and foremost troubled times, including rampant peasant revolts, simmering unrest around religious issues and the uncertainty surrounding the Kalmar Union. In addition, Spøttrup Castle was a symbol of the power of the bishops and the administrative center for tithes and taxes, which the bishops collected on their own behalf and often also on behalf of the king. Spøttrup Castle also became the legal center of Vestsalling when the bishops had the birch rights over Krejbjerg birk moved to the castle.
The design of the castle
The south wing was built first. The lower floor was a large, dark granary for storing the bishops’ tithe grain, but above this was the bishop’s residence, which when the castle was built was a bright apartment with large windows. After the south wing, the east and north wings were built. The east wing with the great hall, today called the bishop’s hall, and the north wing with the chapel. In the attic above all three wings there was a well-developed shuttle loft where the soldiers stayed. It had been planned to build a west wing, but for unknown reasons they changed their minds and settled for a strong gate tower connected by a barrage wall.
The double moats and the nine meter high rampart with palisades and bulwarks were built around it.
The bishop’s magnificent residence in the south wing did not last long, and during the church struggle leading up to the Reformation, the large windows on the second floor of the south wing were replaced with bullet holes, which completely changed the bishop’s beautiful room.
Since its construction in the early 1500s, several changes have been made to the castle’s design as times changed and new owners came to the castle. Among them, Henrik Below (1540-1606) contributed to major changes when he took over Spøttrup in 1579. Below renovated the two stair towers in the courtyard, added a dance hall in the south wing and demolished the bishop’s shuttle roof.
Royal fiefdom
With the Reformation and the accompanying religious and political unrest in the form of the Count’s Feud, the then Catholic Bishop of Viborg, Jørgen Friis (1495-1547), was imprisoned at Hald in Viborg. At the same time as his imprisonment, the king confiscated the church’s goods and property, including Spøttrup Borg.
Spøttrup Borg became a royal fief and was administered for the next 43 years, partly as a fief under Hald and partly as a fief in its own right. Otte Krumpen (ca. 1480-1569) was granted Hald, Spøttrup and Rødding Birk in 1544. Krumpen was one of the kingdom’s great noblemen and four years after his appointment as lord of Hald and Spøttrup, he was appointed marshal of the kingdom, i.e. commander-in-chief of the country’s military forces.
Otte Krumpen had close ties to Spøttrup Castle in the last ten years of his life, where he possibly carried out a number of renovations to the castle. Krumpens widow, Anne Lykke, applied for permission to keep Spøttrup after her husband’s death. Frederick II allowed her to stay in the castle in exchange for paying 1000 daler to the crown, but later changed his mind and she was given Øslev Kloster instead.
Over the next ten years, the castle was granted to several different nobles, but none of them remained attached to the castle for long periods. In 1573, Spøttrup was granted to Bendix von Ahlefeldt, who remained lord of the castle for 24 years. Ahlefeldt died in Mecklenburg in 1576. After Ahlefeldt’s death, Spøttrup passed to its first private owner, Henrik Below.
Henrik Below takes over Spøttrup
Henrik Below (1540-1606) was born in Klincken in Mecklenburg in 1540. He studied for 3 years at the University of Rostock and subsequently did military service, including taking part in the Franco-Spanish War. After years of military service, he became a diplomat and became acquainted with Denmark. At the age of 24, he was appointed court marshal in Mecklenburg and was sent on a mission to the Danish court during the reign of Frederik II.
Frederik II offered Below service with him and in 1575 Below became part of the Danish court and later court marshal. The king gave him an estate in Scania, which was exchanged for Spøttrup in a transfer of power in 1579.
When Below took over the estate, Spøttrup consisted of 74 farms and four mills in Rødding and Krejbjerg parishes, as well as birch rights over the area, and land corresponding to 600 barrels of grain.
Below made a number of renovations and changes to the castle. Among other things, the two stair towers in the courtyard and the dance hall in the south wing were renovated and the bishopric’s shuttle roof was demolished.
In 1583, King Frederik II held a wedding feast for Henrik Below and his wife Lisbeth Skram (1563-1600) at Koldinghus and the following year the king was also godfather to the couple’s firstborn child, Frederik, who was only two years old. Below and Lisbeth had four viable children, including son Claus and daughters Marie (1586-1651) and Sofie (1590-1641).
Below died in 1606 at the age of 66 and Spøttrup was taken over by Below’s eldest son, Claus Below (1588-1620), when he was 21 years old. However, Claus died in 1620, only 35 years old. Claus’ widow, Karen Lange, lived at Spøttrup until her death in 1644, after which Claus’ son, Henrik Below the younger, took over the farm. He had to sell the farm four years later.
The Rosenkrantz family at Spøttrup
The Below family’s departure from Spøttrup leads to a few years of calm and changing owners, which is exacerbated by the Karl-Gustav wars in the second half of the 1600s. From 1665 to 1702, Spøttrup was owned by the German pawnbroker Joachim Kohlblatt and his son Paul. They were not particularly interested in their possessions in Salling and had Spøttrup managed by tenants.
In 1702, Paul Kohlblatt sold Spøttrup to Axel Rosenkrantz (1660-1724). Rosenkrantz was among the Danish noblemen who had lost their Scanian possessions at the Peace of Roskilde. When Axel Rosenkrantz took over the castle, it was described as “very dilapidated and ruined”. Therefore, Rosenkrantz began renovations, including importing large quantities of timber. In 1722, Spøttrup was described as “very well built” by Bishop Søren Lintrup.
Axel Rosenkrantz lived a quiet life at Spøttrup during his 22 years at the castle. So did his son, Morgens Rosenkrantz (1701-1778), who took a public position as an assessor in the Supreme Court and otherwise looked after Spøttrup. In 1776, the Rosenkrantzes’ time at Spøttrup came to an end when Morgens Rosenkrantz put Spøttrup up for sale at auction.
Horse trading and Nis Nissen
In 1784, Peder Nissen (d. 1788) took over Spøttrup. Nissen saw great opportunities in the grazing areas and moved his cattle farm from the Ringkøbing region to Salling. However, Peder Nissen died in 1788 and his widow, Bodil Hillerup, brought her son Nis Nissen (1771-1849) home from Latin school in Ribe. Bodil Hillerup (d. 1808) and her son Nis worked together to run the farm until 1803, when Nis Nissen himself took over. Nis Nissen bought Spøttrup from his mother for 61,500 rigsdaler and the same year he married Karen Stabel from Ullerup on Mors.
When his mother died in 1808, Nis Nissen had to settle his four siblings’ inheritance and at the same time the war against England made it difficult to farm. Through hard work, Nissen managed to get Spøttrup through the crisis with a flower business. In the 1830s, Nis Nissen was one of Jutland’s richest men and his frugality was known and bordered on the extreme. Stories of his stinginess reached far and wide. He became known as the King of Salling or simply the Studekongen.
Nis Nissen had no children. He was married twice. His first wife died in 1824 and the following year he remarried the 33 years younger Ane Dorothea Hagensen from Mors. She gave birth to seven children, but none of them survived beyond the age of two. They lived a quiet life in the castle without much socializing.
Nis Nissen died on July 29, 1848. His wife did not want to stay at the castle and Spøttrup was therefore sold at auction. After four attempts to sell Spøttrup at auction, a buyer was finally found at the fifth auction. Spøttrup was sold for 105,800 rigsdaler silver, which was less than 34,700 rigsdaler below the original valuation price.
Decay and fire
It was a consortium of several enterprising men who bought Spøttrup. They sold off most of the farmland, after which miller Niels Breinholdt took over the remains of Spøttrup. Breinholdt was not impressed with the castle and let several of the old buildings fall into disrepair.
Breinholdt set up a distillery in the north wing of the castle and used dynamite to blast away the old heavy cellar vaults. He had the inner moat filled in and removed the ramparts on two sides. Breinholdt also had Spøttrup Lake drained.
In 1875, Breinholdt sold Spøttrup to his tenant Ludvig Henrik Thomas Balle. Baller bought Spøttrup at a high price of DKK 250,000 and for this reason had financial difficulties right from the start, which were only exacerbated by the fact that the farm buildings burned down twice in the 1880s. In addition, the time had passed from stud farming, which was no longer a good business, which led to a conversion to dairy farming.
Balle had to give up Spøttrup already in 1901, when the farm went into receivership and in 1903 Christian Pedersen Toft took over the farm for only DKK 175,000.
Christian Pedersen Toft became the last private owner of Spøttrup. Toft was a skilled farmer and was interested in the history of Spøttrup, but despite this, Toft wanted to demolish parts of the castle as it was in great disrepair. Spøttrup Castle was listed in 1918, but Toft did not receive funds for restoration from the state. This led to threats of demolition of the north wing and later a lawsuit against the state, which Toft lost.
In 1919, Toft settled in Copenhagen and had the farm looked after by tenants. From 1926-1937, it was his son Peder Blichert-Toft who leased the farm. During this period, tourism began to take off and Blichert-Toft began to show the castle to interested parties for a small fee, and the family also sold postcards with the castle as a motif.
On March 3, 1937, Spøttrup’s farm buildings burned for the third time in 50 years. This was the end of farming in Spøttrup. Grain and fodder burned along with 1000 animals that were in the stables.
Spøttrup Castle Museum
The fire led to the state offering to buy Spøttrup Borg and its land. The sale price was DKK 380,500 for the farm and 338 hectares of land. The castle and nine hectares of park were to be restored. The rest was parcelled out into 28 smallholdings.
Work on the restoration of the castle continued until 1941 under the leadership of Royal Building Inspector Mogens Clemens. Building inspector Mogens Clemmensen. The castle was partly restored to its original appearance. However, it was decided to preserve Below’s Renaissance conversions, such as the towers in the courtyard and the dance hall in the south wing. The ramparts and moats were also restored. A herb and medicinal herb garden and rose garden were created.
The castle museum was inaugurated on Valdemarsdag on June 15, 1941.
Sources
Museum Salling. Spøttrupborg.dk. The history of the castle. History of the castle – spoettrupborg. Last visited: 03.09.2025
Høvsgaard, Thomas. Spøttrup – a castle for all times. Spøttrup Castle Museum 2004.
Danish Center for Manor Research. Danskeherregårde.dk. Spøttrup Castle. Spøttrup. Last visited: 03t.09.2025