Engestofte

Engestofte

Engestofte is a Neoclassical manor house located 6 km (4 mi) east of Maribo on the Danish island of Lolland.

History and architecture

The estate was first mentioned in the 13th century. For a period it belonged to the Crown until it came into the hands of the Urne family in the 16th and 17th centuries and the Wichfelds thereafter. The two-storey Neoclassical building was built in 1807 and expanded in 1889.^[1] The facade of the simply-designed residence is adorned with four iconic pilasters and a triangular pediment.^[2]

The Englishwomen, Monica Emily Wichfeld (née Massey-Beresford), who married Jørgen Adalbert Wichfeld in 1916, was impressed with the forty-roomed mansion, the surrounding buildings, the long driveway lined with limes and elms, and the terraces leading from the house down to the lake below.^[3]

The estate cottage and grounds was used in co-operation with Monica Wichfeld during the Danish Resistance in the Second World War to harbour fugitives, to shelter Jewish Families hiding from the Gestapo, to train saboteurs and hide weapons, ammunition and explosives and organize the movement. It was also used as a covert landing ground for British Special Operations Executive deliveries of paratroopers, information, weapons and explosives.

Access

The property is not open to the public but can be seen from the churchyard.^[2]

References

1. "Engestofte" (in Danish). Den Store Danske. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
2. "Engestofte" (in Danish). Lollands-Herregaarde. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
3. Vargo, Marc E. (11 September 2012). Women of the Resistance: Eight Who Defied the Third Reich. McFarland. pp. 54–. ISBN 978-0-7864-6579-8.

Literature

• Marryat, Horace (1860). A Residence in Jutland, the Danish Isles, and Copenhagen. J. Murray. pp. 307–.

Coordinates: 54°45′42″N 11°33′54″E / 54.76167°N 11.56500°E