The property traces its history back to 1748 when the French envoy in Copenhagen, Abbé Lemaire, constructed a country site next to Lyngby Church.

He belonged to "Bernstorffsk'e Circle", a group of German civil servants, writers and artists associated with the influential Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff.

A great lover of nature, he went for walks in the surrounding countryside in the summer time and ice skated on Lyngby Lake in winter.

Another member of the circle was the German court pastor Johan Andreas Cramer who owned a country house at nearby Stades Krog from 1756 to 1768.

His guests included the German priest Balthasar Münter, who visited him together with his daughter Friederike, the later wife of Constantin Brun and a well-known salonist at Sophienholm.