The history of Sophienberg Slot

The 1700 century

In 1721 the later King Christian VI (1699-1746) married the german Sophie Magdalene (1700-1770). She came from one of Germanys many royal states: Brandenburg-Kulmbach and was the daughter of margrave Christian Heinrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. One of their children was the later King Frederik V. As future King and Queen to the crown they lived at the dilapidated Hørsholm Slot, but this castle did not come up to her expectations. She demolished the castle and builded a new one, Hirschholm Slot. That should be surrounded by a village. The architects were Nicolai Eigtved and Laurits de Thurah. In 1739 the royal family moved into Kirschholm Slot.

After the death of Sophie Magdalene in 1770, the King Christian VII and his queen Caroline Mathilde and Stuense lived at the castle (1770-1771). Hirschholm Slot decayed and the demolishing started in 1810, the good materials were beeing recycled to rebuild Christianborg and C.F. Hansen´s new court house at Gammeltorv in Copenhagen.

Already in 1734 the first notes of Sophienberg accured, Eigtved suggested the queen to build af small recreational area. Eigtved started the project, a small tea pavillion. The first drawings are not known, they are presumed lost during the fire of Christiansborg in 1794.

The small tea pavillion was finished in 1744 and inaugurated on the name day of the King, May 14th. You assume that the first castle looking similar the the present building. Though the queen was not content with the building and already 2 years later the castle was rebuild with a two storage building with a large copper cupola at the middle builing and side wings with rooms for the staff underneath the roof. After the death of Sophie Magdalena, the King Christian VII and his queen Caroline Mathilde and Struense stayed at the castle, but not after the murder of Struense. The king handed it over to his half brother, heir presumptive Frederik. But Frederik had other castles and in 1790 it was sold to the goverment. The first not royal buyer was chanceller Johan Thomas de Neergaard, who resold the castle, because he did not know how to make it a farm. The next owner was colonel Arnoldus Falkenskjold in 1797, he expanded the fields surrounding the castle and started an extensive farming. He did only use the castle during the summer.

1800 century

In 1804 the british marine landed only a short distance from Sophienberg, they wanted the danish goverment to hand over the marine. The restistance caused the bombing of Copenhagen. After the bombing there was a huge demand for building materials and Falkenskjold, who thought the castle was to big, demolished the top floor and sold the materials to Copenhagen in 1807.

And later also the northern pavillon and middle building were demolish and the materials were used for farm buildings. The remained there until the 1980´es.

After the death of Falkenskjold the property was owned for a 4 years period by Anna Gustave Wedel-Jarslberg. In 1830 Hans Gustav von Lilienskjold  took over. During his ownership the fields were neglected and the wood chopped down. When he sold the castle in 1851, there were 4 more owners, merchant Ree, captain Wulff, large farmer Engelsted and shopowner Schmidt.

In 1872 consul Jens Frederik Bloch bought Sophienberg, he also owned the neighboring estate Kokkedal, he used both places for farming, all together about 400 acres. He maintained the house and garden. The consul and he wife had no children, so the adopted 3 girls. The composer P.E. Lange-Müller visited the consul during the summer of 1883. The consul died in 1892 and the widow stayed af Sophienberg until 1897. One of the daughters married Lange Müller in 1892 and after the death of the morther in 1897 , they inherited Sophienberg. For many years Sophienberg was theie summer residence.

1900 century

When Ruth Lange-Müller died in 1921, her 3 daughter inherited Sophienberg. The oldest daughter Irmelin gave up her inherity in 1928 and the youngest, Vibeke was  a nurse in India. So Ruth, the middle child, became full heiress to Sophienberg. In 1930 she married Brahim ben Hannine, a man she had met during a stay in Biskra/Algiers (her father had stayed here for a longer period, because of his health). In the years 1932-1934 Sophienberg was made into a house that wassuitable for use throughout the year. Fireplaces, water and electricity was installed.

In 1942 Brahim ben Hannine died of pneumonia and was burried i the northern corner of the garden at Sophienberg, near the 1809 demolished wing. In 1865 Meretet was also burried here.

In 1950 Merete and later the son Saleh (1973) sold the southern fields tho the local authority, who parcelled out.

Salah spend a lot of money and many years of his life to restore Sophienberg, but ing 1986 he gave up and sold Sophienberg to contractor Niels Thygesen & Co. Salah died that year and never saw the finish of Sophienberg´s restoration.

The contractor Niels Thygesen worked out a plan for the restoration. The restoration an rebuilding also opened for the possibility to use the castle for liberal industry.

In 1988-1990 the rebuilding and restoration was finished and Sophienberg looked the way she does today.

For a short period of time, the investment company, MSC, leased the buildings. Byggeriets Realkredit Fond took over the buildings for 3 years untill GL took over.

In this connection a partly renovation was made. Accommodation, meeting rooms were made. They were inuagurated 1st Decemeber 1993.

Year 2000 untill now

1st May 2006 graduate engineer Gunner Ruben bought Sophienberg Slot. He also owns Hotel Bretagne, Hornbækhus and Hotel Villa Strand in Hornbæk.