Hesselagergård

Hesselagergård (or Hesselager Manor), located near Gudme in the southeast of the Danish island Funen, is the oldest Renaissance building in Denmark.

It was built by Johan Friis, one of the most powerful men in Denmark during the reigns of Christian III and Frederick II.

The construction started as a late gothic defensive castle, built of large red brick on a granite plinth and surrounded by a moat, but by the end it had introduced many renaissance features.

Especially noteworthy are the highly decorated hipped, round gables inspired by Venetian renaissance church architecture.

[4] Also typical of the time are the blank arches below the projecting masonry and the watchman's passage at the top with machicolation for missiles and boiling a liquid (as, for example, on Johan Friis' manor house Borreby on Sjælland).