Søholt Baroque Garden

An island manor framed by formal greenery

Søholt Baroque Garden unfolds beside Søholt Manor, a whitewashed estate set just south of the Maribo Lakes on the island of Lolland. The garden forms a precise green stage between the manor and the surrounding meadows, its clipped walls of hornbeam and box enclosing a carefully composed world. Straight gravel avenues pull your eye toward the main axis, while side paths invite you to drift through more intimate compartments. Although the manor house you glimpse beyond the hedges dates mainly from the early 1800s, the garden’s spirit reaches back to the late 17th and early 18th centuries, when formal French ideas reshaped the grounds. Today, the Baroque layout has been restored, so you walk through a living reflection of an era when geometry, symmetry and control over nature were seen as symbols of power and refinement.

Baroque geometry and the art of symmetry

The core of Søholt Baroque Garden is its strict geometry. From above, the beds and avenues form a pattern of rectangles and diagonals, each section mirrored across the central spine. On the ground, this translates into long, straight perspectives bordered by high hedges, carefully aligned trees and neatly raked gravel. It is a garden meant to be read like a drawing, each step revealing a new vista along an axis or into a green outdoor room. At the heart of this pattern, an elegant fountain anchors the composition. Water jets rise above the still basin, catching the changing light and adding movement to an otherwise very controlled scene. Around it, low hedges and parterre beds outline scrolls and panels, giving a taste of the decorative embroidery that once defined prestigious European gardens.

Seasonal colour in a disciplined landscape

Within this framework of clipped green, the planting brings a softer, more romantic layer. In spring, magnolias open huge, pale flowers that glow against the hedges, quickly followed by clouds of blossom on crab apples and Japanese cherries. Their petals drift across the paths like confetti, briefly challenging the garden’s strict lines. As summer advances, foliage deepens to a richer green and the orchard areas fill with fruit, reminding you that Baroque gardens were also productive spaces. Later in the year, autumn transforms the scene again as trees and shrubs turn golden, amber and rust, the low light casting long shadows that emphasise the strong architecture of the layout.

Paths, viewpoints and quiet corners

Exploring Søholt Baroque Garden is as much about atmosphere as about botany. The tall hornbeam walls create a surprising sense of seclusion, muffling sounds from the wider estate and framing small windows onto lake and meadow. Benches placed at intersections or beside the fountain encourage you to pause, watch the play of water and listen to birds calling from the surrounding landscape. Some paths lead toward the edges of the garden, where views open out across the Maribo lake district and back to the manor’s gables. From here you can appreciate how the formal design is set within a broader tapestry of fields, woodland and water, the straight lines of the Baroque geometry contrasting with the softer shapes of reeds and shoreline.

A restored heritage landscape

The garden you see today is the result of a careful restoration completed in the early 21st century, guided by historic plans and research into the original layout. Hedges have been replanted, lines re‑established and features like the fountain and parterre beds brought back to life, turning what had become a faint memory into a coherent historic landscape once again. At the same time, the garden functions as a contemporary green refuge: a place to stroll, sit and simply enjoy space and structure. Its mix of cultural history, formal design and gentle natural setting makes it a distinctive stop on any exploration of the Maribo Lakes area and the manor landscapes of southern Denmark.