Guided tours and activities
Food for thought
Experience a really close encounter with abbey life as you listen to life stories from our 900-year history: stories of everyone from monks to the royal family, who used the buildings as their personal hunting lodge.
Book a guided tour that offers inspiration, reflection and sensory impressions for your party or company. Or a day of guessing games or dilemma games if you’re more into play and activity. Either way, we’ll immerse you in history and give you a taste of all the hidden stories.
It’s all about people
The meeting between us and you and our shared encounter with the people of the past creates the place. Many of us have the same thoughts about life, society and the world around us, and these are the big questions we focus on in all our experiences and tours.
Many lives
Esrum Kloster & Møllegård has been home to many lives and functions: everything from faith and beliefs, military strategies and government information on property rights. The monastery has housed philosophical texts by Kierkegaard to be hidden away during World War II, and personal letters between friends sent to the Esrum post office. In our cultural communication today, we mirror ourselves in all the people who have lived here before us, and through this, we may be inspired for how our own lives should be lived now and in the future.
Monastic tales
We take a walk around the monastery in the area that housed the large medieval monastery complex and the beautiful monastery garden. You will learn about the great importance of the Cistercians in medieval society. About their important task of praying for the salvation of all people and the political and economic power it gave them. It may be hard to imagine, but Esrum was not a small monastery far out in the countryside, but a large social institution that was part of a larger European network.
Many lives were lived here, and we talk about who the monks were: What did they believe in and why did they choose monastic life? Why did they see sense in choosing a life filled with rules and structure, where everyday life was a constant alternation between rest, prayer and work?
60 min. with a short walk in the area. Most of the tour takes place outside, so dress for the weather.
- Up to 25 people: 1000 kr.
- Up to 50 people: 2000 kr.
- Up to 75 people: 3000 kr.
In addition, a ticket to the monastery is required
Walking and storytelling on the abbey wall
If you want to take a tour around the beautiful area and experience the nature that surrounds the monastery, choose this tour. We expand the story of the monastery to include the monks’ use of the landscape and nature around them. The monastery’s land extended far beyond the central monastery complex. It covered a large area, all the way down to Esrum Lake. The Cistercian monks focused on the work of the hand and were skilled craftsmen, builders, farmers and engineers. We take a walk around the now disappeared monastery wall and draw a picture of the living monastery with traveling stables, breweries, barns, animal husbandry, water mills, bell foundry and much more. The tour is approximately 2 km around the area and lasts 90 minutes. Remember good footwear and clothing for the weather.
- Up to 25 people: 1000 kr.
- Up to 50 people: 2000 kr.
- Up to 75 people: 3000 kr.
In addition, a ticket to the monastery is required
Taste the abbey garden
When the sun is high in the sky and the monastery garden is full of scents, sounds and colors, you can really feel the place that the monks tried to create – a little paradise on earth. On this tour, in addition to the story of the monastery, you’ll also get a taste of history: We unfold the story of the monks’ many gardens, including the medicinal herb garden, the orchard, the hop garden and the vegetable gardens. We smell the herbs and taste some of them. Along the way, you’ll also get small samples of the good Esrum beer, honey, mustard, jams, etc. All made in and by monasteries in Europe. Duration 90 min.
- Up to 25 people: 1000 kr.
- Up to 50 people: 2000 kr.
- Up to 75 people: 3000 kr.
In addition, DKK 125 per person, which covers ticket price and tastings.
Only available in the period May 1 – September 15.
Puzzle game: The Secret of the White Monks
Do you love solving puzzles and mysteries? Then try our puzzle game The Secret of the White Monks.
If you are good at working together and can find all the clues hidden in the old monastery building, you might be able to crack the 7 codes that open 7 mysterious chests. By doing so, you earn your way into the Lodge of the White Monks and enter the history of lodge members hiding an 800-year-old secret.
Before the game, you get a joint introduction to the monastery. Then you play together in teams of 2-5 people. The game is partly played outside, so remember to dress for the weather.
- Up to 25 people: 2000 kr.
- Up to 50 people: 3000 kr
In addition, a ticket to the monastery is required
The Dilemma Game: faith, power and chaos
What would you do if you had the power to make all the most important decisions for the future of Denmark? Find out in the game Faith, Power and Chaos.
In the large game room, equipped with beautiful hats, you will play noble families who are part of the power elite in the early 1500s in Denmark. You must make a wide range of choices, forge alliances and take actions that will guide your family through the turbulent period that Denmark went through leading up to the Reformation. Whose side are you on? Are you with the nobility, the church or the citizens? And which king do you support?
In the end, it is you who will decide whether Denmark is reformed or not!
The game takes place inside the monastery building. You first get a short introduction to the monastery and then a gamemaster takes you through the game.
- Up to 12-32 people: DKK 2000.
In addition, a ticket to the monastery is required
