Nysø Manor

Nysø Manor sits at the edge of the little market town of Præstø in South Zealand, a dignified Baroque country house whose real fame rests on the years when Denmark's greatest sculptor made it his refuge. Bertel Thorvaldsen, the internationally celebrated neoclassical master who spent most of his career in Rome, returned to Denmark late in life and from 1839 was a frequent, deeply attached guest of the Stampe family at Nysø. Here, in a house that welcomed poets, painters and philosophers of the Golden Age, he found the peace to keep working almost until his death in 1844.

The manor itself is a modest but handsome three-winged Baroque building of the late seventeenth century, set behind a moat within quiet parkland. What makes it exceptional is that it preserves the atmosphere of that artistic circle. The Baroness Christine Stampe gathered around her the leading cultural figures of the age, and Nysø became a kind of country salon; the rooms still hold furniture, portraits and mementoes of those gatherings, giving a vivid sense of Danish Golden Age culture at its most convivial.

At the heart of a visit is the Thorvaldsen collection. Nysø holds a remarkable group of the sculptor's works — models, plaster sketches and finished pieces — many made or completed during his stays here. In the garden stands the small studio built for him, sometimes called his ‘Honour Temple’, where he actually modelled clay and plaster; to stand in the very room where a European master worked, looking out over the same garden, is a rare and moving experience that no larger museum can quite replicate.

The grounds are gentle and freely open, with the moat, old trees and lawns making an easy short stroll, level enough for most visitors, while the manor museum itself has a few steps. Opening of the interior and the Thorvaldsen rooms is seasonal, concentrated in the summer months, so it is worth checking times before travelling if the collection is your main aim; the park can be enjoyed more freely year-round.

Nysø makes an excellent stop on a tour of South Zealand's manors and coast. Præstø is a pretty harbour town on its own fjord, good for a coffee or a walk, and the manor pairs naturally with other nearby sights — the medieval fortress town of Vordingborg with its Goose Tower some twenty minutes away, or the Møn cliffs a little further south. Allow around seventy-five minutes for the house and garden, longer if you want to sit with the Thorvaldsen works and absorb the quiet, cultured atmosphere that drew Denmark's finest sculptor back from Rome.