Engestofte

The estate was first mentioned in the 13th century. For a period it belonged to the Crown until it came into the hands of changing noble families.

Jørgen Wichfeld

Bertel Wichmand (1677–1732), a wealthy merchant from Nykøbing Falster, acquired Engestofte in 1727. His widow kept the estate after her husband's death. Upo her death in 1751, it passed to their eldest son, Jørgen Wichmand. He and his brother Thomas Frederik Wichmand were ennobled by letters patent with the name Wichfeld on 23 July 1777.[1]

Jørgen Wichfeld never married and had no children, He therefore left Engestofte and Ulriksdal to his nephew Henning Wichfeld with an obligation to turn them into a stamhus (family foundation). This happened on 8 November 1799.

The two-storey Neoclassical building was built in 1807 and expanded in 1889.[2] The facade of the simply-designed residence is adorned with four iconic pilasters and a triangular pediment.[3]

Engestofte depicted by Ferdinand Richardt in 1867

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.[4]

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.

Jørgen Adalbert Wichfeld died in 1965 and the estate was inherited by his son Viggo Dimitri who renovated it completely. Sadly, Viggo ran into financial difficulties and was forced to sell the estate to William Erik Berntsen, owner of Frederikssund Iron Foundry and Machine Factory. His son William OleBerntsen inherited the estate in 1995 and one year later purchased the neighboring estate Søholt. He left both estates to a foundation but the relevant authorities turned down the foundation's application for a dispensation from the Agriculture Act and demanded a sale of the estates. rederik von Lüttichau bought both estates in 2003 but sold Engestofte to Hans Peter Egeskov in 2011.