Bjørnkær Voldsted GB
Bjørnkær Voldsted
Bjørnkær Sættet
Bjørnkær Voldsted. tårnruinen. 1933
Intro
Dating from the 1300s, Bjørnkær Castle Mound stands in this wood known as Vandmose Wood, meaning a natural wet area that would have been capable of supplying the castle moat with water.
Dating from the 1300s, Bjørnkær Castle Mound stands in this wood known as Vandmose Wood, meaning a natural wet area that would have been capable of supplying the castle moat with water.
Today, only the castle mounds are visible. The mounds were separated by a dry moat and, on one of these stood a building measuring 4.5 by 6.5m and built with large mediaeval bricks. The basement of this building is still visible. The entire area was surrounded by a moat, and the remains of a curtain wall have been found indicating that the place was well-protected against enemies.
In the 1300s, powerful noble families fortified their manors as a result of the unstable times following the death of King Valdemar the Victorious in 1241. His sons were jostling for power, and the crown was challenged by nobility as well as the Church.
Huge sums of money were spent on fortifying manors – so much so that the king had to mortgage the realm in order to be able to cover the costs. This effectively meant that the realm was slowly falling apart. In the 1320s, the entire kingdom was mortgaged and, not until 1340, when Valdemar Atterdag ascended the throne, did the country have a king.
Bjørnkær was excavated between 1930 and 1935 by the National Museum of Denmark assisted by local people.
The excavations showed that there had once been a tower and a large building with walls about 1m thick.
In one corner of the tower basement, a well was found – and here a sensational find was discovered:
inside the well, large quantities of fragments from clay vessels were found, all of them covered by a black grainy mass that turned out to be semi-incinerated barley, wheat, and rye. The fragments came from vessels, dishes, lids, pots, pans, funnels, jugs, cups, and bowls that did not resemble anything found before.
Archaeologists had actually uncovered distilling apparatus; and experiments carried out using a copy of the set showed that it could, indeed, be used for distilling – there was disagreement, however, as to the quality of the resulting liquid!
This is an exceptional find – and it is first spirit-distilling apparatus to be discovered in Northern Europe – dating back to the 1300s.