Spøttrup Castle

Facts

Cutting-edge castle attacked by Jutlanders

By Mette Svart Kristiansen, Middelalderarkæolog (10 stories)

Spøttrup Castle was built in the 1520s by Bishop of Viborg Jørgen Friis (1494-1547). By Danish standards, it was a state-of-the-art castle, with its towering 9-metre ramparts and double moat to withstand the latest and most effective cannons. In this age of religious and social upheaval, Viborg was a hotspot, and during the civil wars and Reformation Movement in 1534-36, the Castle was attacked by Jutland rebels . By the end of the war, the Reformation was a done deed. Jørgen Friis and the rest of Denmark's bishops were imprisoned by the new Lutheran King Christian III and Spøttrup became Crown property.

Public place

Selected entry

No stranger to pleasures

Story written by Mette Svart Kristiansen

Time / Periode 1520 1547

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Bishop Jørgen Friis was one of the infamous figures of the Reformation period. He is characterised as Excitable by nature, impetuous and worldly, covetous of property, and no stranger to the pleasures of the table and of the fair sex" – everything the Reformation Movement had revolted against. He was in open conflict with his parishioners in Viborg led by the reformer Hans Tausen. Eventually, the Bishop couldn't show his face in town, and found refuge at his castles of Spøttrup and Hald. When, after a brief spell of imprisonment, he renounced his Catholicism, the King granted him tenure of land and property, and Friis lived out his days as a worldly and ever-belligerent squire. "