The goose tower in Vordingborg is a brick tower that is part of the old Vordingborg Castle, founded under Valdemar the Great around 1160. In the 1360s, Valdemar Atterdag expanded the castle to the largest castle in Denmark. The castle was given a 770 meter long and 8 meter high ring wall, which was provided with four corner towers, of which the Goose Tower is the only one preserved.
The tower is built as a defense tower with thick walls at the bottom that slowly become thinner to the top. Measured to the top of the wall, the tower is 26 meters high. In addition, an approx. 10 meter high copper spire, which has had different designs - the current one is from 1871.
But even though the Goose Tower was used to keep people imprisoned, it was not taken very good care of. In fact, four prisoners escaped in 1725 on that account.
One of them was Kirsten, who was imprisoned in the Goose Tower for killing her own child. But she quickly got tired of it, because it was both cold and enormously dirty in the tower. A locum was not installed until 14 years later.
Kirsten did not want to wait for that, and therefore she lifted one of the many rotten floorboards, crawled out of the cell and freed the other prisoners of the Goose Tower. They found some rope and celebrated in the darkness of night down from the tower and out into freedom.
The name Goose Tower comes from a golden goose that is depicted at the top of the spire. It is said that Valdemar Atterdag used it to mock the Hanseatic cities. In Vordingborg he had received 77 declarations of war from the association, which consisted of cities all over Europe, and he must have set up the golden goose with the words: "77 geese and 77 chickens mean nothing ...". The present goose was first set up in 1871 along with the spire, and 100 years later it was gilded with as much as 2 kilos of gold.
Today, the tower is the only part of the entire fortification that is not ruined. It is also considered the only fully preserved castle tower in Denmark and is today part of the museum at Vordingborg Castle: Denmark's Castle Center.
Info:
Opening:
04.04 - 30.06: Tuesday - Sunday at 10-16.
01.07 - 31.08: Every day at 10-17.
01.09 - 18.10: Tuesday - Sunday at 10-16.
Access to the internal Goose Tower:
Adults: DKK 50.
Children (under 18 years): DKK 25.
Find on Google