History
The castle was built in 1175 by King Valdemar I (Valdemar the Great) as a defensive castle and as a base from which to launch raids against the German coast. His half-brother built another castle in a remote location, which is now Copenhagen. Valdemar II (Valdemar the victorious) similarly used the castle for expansion into the Baltic, and in 1241 it was where he created the reformed legal system, the Law of Jutland. By the time of King Valdemar IV (Valdemar Atterdag, 1340-1375), the castle had nine towers and a defensive wall 800 metres long. The castle was the birthplace of Queen Margaret I of Denmark, daughter of Valdemar IV, in 1353.
Large parts of the castle were demolished after the Swedish wars had ended, in order to construct a palace for Prince Jørgen, son of Frederick III. The prince never took up residence, and the palace too was demolished in the 18th century. Three manors were constructed nearby, including Iselingen, which became a meeting place for many leading artists and scientists during the 1800s.
Read more about this topic: Vordingborg Castle
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—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)