Wooden Maja
An attic figure tradition says will sink the castle if moved.
Malene Thyssen — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Rüdiger Stehn from Kiel, Deutschland — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Jérémy Toma — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tanya Dedyukhina — CC BY 3.0
The best-preserved moated castle in Europe, standing in a small lake in the middle of the island of **Funen**, built in 1554 during a civil war. The oddity is in its foundation: the castle stands on **an entire forest of oak trunks** driven vertically into the lake bed. Local saying has it that building it consumed a whole oak wood — hence the name, which means "oak forest«. Two joined wings with walls over a metre thick are linked by **secret passages** built so defenders could move under fire. Inside, the rooms are fully furnished, and in the attic lies **«Wooden Maja»** — a wooden figure which tradition says must never be moved, or the castle will sink on Christmas Eve. Nobody has dared shift her. Around the castle is what makes this a full day rather than a building visit: **museums of cars, motorcycles, aircraft and carriages**, large **hedge mazes**, a **treetop walkway**, and extensive formal gardens. Note: **seasonal** — usually open from late April to October and closed in winter.
An attic figure tradition says will sink the castle if moved.
A raised path among the trees in the castle grounds.
Cars, motorcycles, aircraft and carriages in outbuildings.
Egeskov Gade 18, Kværndrup, island of Funen — about 111 km from Aarhus
It is worth it **if you give it the whole day and have a car** — 111 km each way, about an hour and a half, across the Little Belt Bridge. It does not work as a quick afternoon. What justifies it is that the site is **not only a castle**: the castle, museums, mazes, treetop walk and gardens fill five hours easily, and it is one of Denmark's most successful family destinations. ⚠ **Check the season before setting out** — it closes entirely in winter. And if you are travelling on to **Odense** or Copenhagen it is roughly on the way, so folding it into a transfer day is smarter than a return trip.
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