Sostrup Castle and Monastery
The palace Sostrup Slot oozes of history. From the heyday of masters and mistresses to its time as a refugee camp and later a monastery.
The history
Sostrup is an island fort established on a man-made island of granite boulders and hundreds of oak tree posts. The posts are to retain moisture so they don't become porous. This is why it is important that the moat doesn't dry out.
An old myth says that Sostrup castle will collapse into the moat on a Christmas night. This was not something the former owner, Jørgen Schell, also known as the wild earl, wanted to risk being a part of. Instead, he built a house in the neighbouring town of Gjerrild where he could stay on Christmas night. He named the house Kokkehuset and the house is still there to this day.
Many families of noble birth have owned Sostrup castle. The mighty Scheel family became the owner of Sostrup in 1612 and it remained in the Scheel family for 211 years. At the time, the castle was named Skeel which was the original spelling of the Scheel family name.
The last person of the Scheel family to own the castle was Jørgen Scheel. He travelled around Europe on several occasions over a 15-year period. It was during these trips that he brought many cultural artefacts home with him; works of art, 11.600 books, furniture, hand-painted tapestry, etc. However, it was also this interest that eventually lead to the end of the Scheel family's era on Sostrup.
Monastery and church
In 1960, a group of Cistercian nuns took over the castle and transformed it into a monastery. In 1992, both Maria Hjerte Kloster and Maria Hjerte Church were built under the leadership of Abbess Theresa Brenninkmeijer. In 2013, the abbess and 26 nuns left the monastery and Denmark.
The children's castle
Today, Sostrup Castle is owned by Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, the fourth generation of the Lego family. He bought the castle on 1 January 2025, and the castle now focuses on magic and adventure in the project ‘Drakonheart’ - a camp for children with unique abilities and high creativity.
The castle is not open to the public.