The servant’s domain

Early 20th century

On the ground floor, with an entrance from the gateway, lie the servants’ quarters. First comes The Servants’ Hall where the servants ate their daily meals. Then there is the housekeeper’s room, neatly but sparsely furnished with a bed, a chest of drawers and only few personal effects. In the early 20th century, the housekeeper at Gammel Estrup was called Ottilie Olesen, and it is still possible today to see where she engraved her name on a pane in the chamber window.

The Manor Kitchen next door is, in many ways, the heart of the building. From here, heat from the wood-fired range rises up through the rest of the house, and the smell of home baking mingles with the chatter of the kitchen maids. The kitchen is fitted out as at the beginning of the 20th century, when the last count lived at Gammel Estrup. Here, the housekeeper and her kitchen maids were responsible for cooking for the entire manor household. Their ingredients came from the farm, the forest, the lakes and the gardens around the manor and were kept in the adjoining pantry until they were prepared and cooked on the great range.

The Manor Kitchen is manned, selling coffee/tea and home-baked cakes, in all school holidays and in the period before Christmas.