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Det Kinesiske Lysthus, Liselund

A delicate chinoiserie tea pavilion hidden in Liselund’s Romantic park, where 18th‑century fantasies of distant China still color a serene Danish landscape.

4.7

Tucked deep in Liselund’s romantic park on the island of Møn, the Chinese Pavilion is a small, whimsically exotic garden house dreamt up in the late 1700s by Antoine de la Calmette. Inspired by Europe’s chinoiserie craze, it offered the Liselund nobility a fanciful setting for tea, conversation and contemplation among winding paths, ponds and cliffs. Today it remains a rare, delicately restored glimpse into Denmark’s romantic garden culture and Enlightenment-era fascination with distant worlds.

A brief summary to Det Kinesiske Lysthus

  • Langebjergvej 4, Borre, 4791, DK
  • Visit website
  • Duration: 0.5 to 1.5 hours
  • Free
  • Environment icon Outdoor
  • Mobile reception: 4 out of 5

Local tips

  • Combine a visit to the Chinese Pavilion with a slow circuit of Liselund park; the building makes more sense as one highlight in the broader Romantic garden composition.
  • Aim for early morning or late afternoon light to photograph the pavilion; softer angles bring out its colors and ornamented woodwork without harsh shadows.
  • Wear comfortable shoes suitable for uneven paths and grassy slopes, especially if you plan to continue on towards the nearby cliffs after exploring the garden.
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Getting There

  • Car from Stege (Møn’s main town)

    From Stege, reaching Liselund and the Chinese Pavilion by car typically takes around 20–25 minutes, following the main road across Møn towards the eastern side of the island. Expect modest country‑road speeds and occasional slow sections through small villages. Parking near Liselund park is generally free but can be limited on sunny summer weekends and during Danish school holidays, so allow extra time in peak season.

  • Bus from Stege to Borre area

    Regional buses connect Stege with the Borre and Møns Klint area in roughly 30–45 minutes, depending on route and time of day. Services are less frequent on evenings and weekends, and timetables vary between summer and winter, so checking the latest schedule in advance is essential. A single adult ticket is typically in the range of 30–60 DKK, with discounts for children and travel cards.

  • Cycling from Stege across Møn

    Cycling from Stege to Liselund usually takes about 60–90 minutes each way along quiet country roads and signposted recreational routes. The terrain is mostly gentle but includes a few rolling sections as you approach the eastern part of the island. Surfaces are paved or good‑quality gravel, making the trip suitable for most reasonably fit cyclists in dry weather; bring water and windproof layers, as conditions can change quickly along the coast.

Det Kinesiske Lysthus location weather suitability

  • Weather icon Mild Temperatures
  • Weather icon Clear Skies
  • Weather icon Any Weather
  • Weather icon Cold Weather

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Discover more about Det Kinesiske Lysthus

A tiny pavilion in a grand romantic vision

Det Kinesiske Lysthus is one of the most evocative corners of Liselund, the much‑loved Romantic park laid out in the late 18th century on the island of Møn. Conceived as part of a complete dream landscape for the couple Antoine and Lisa de la Calmette, the little pavilion was never meant to be grand in scale. Instead it adds a note of playful exoticism to a carefully staged sequence of lawns, groves, lakes and winding paths that culminate abruptly at the white chalk cliffs above the Baltic Sea. Here the garden designers borrowed freely from the era’s enthusiasm for chinoiserie, sprinkling Eastern motifs into an otherwise very Danish coastal landscape. The result is a curious, almost theatrical building that still feels like a scene from a painted backdrop when you first glimpse it through the trees.

Chinoiserie dreams on the edge of the Baltic

In the late 1700s Europe was captivated by imagined versions of China, and garden architects responded with pagodas, bridges and playful tea houses. Liselund’s Chinese Pavilion is a textbook expression of that fashion. Its proportions are small and intimate, its silhouette light, with ornamented woodwork, decorative colours and references to far‑off lands that the owners knew mostly from travel accounts, prints and porcelain. The pavilion’s purpose was as symbolic as it was practical. It created the sense of stepping out of Denmark and into a distant realm, if only for the duration of an afternoon tea. At the same time, it visually balances nearby elements in the park – lakes, tree‑framed viewpoints and meandering paths – forming just one note in a larger Romantic composition intended to stir emotion and imagination.

Tea rituals and enlightened conversations

For the Calmettes and their guests, the Chinese Pavilion offered a setting for quiet rituals rather than grand receptions. Here tea – still a luxurious novelty – could be served "under distant skies", as contemporary descriptions put it, in surroundings that fitted its exotic reputation. On mild days, doors would be opened to the park so that conversation could flow with birdsong and the rustle of beech leaves in the background. The building is modest inside, but that was deliberate. Practical functions of the estate were dispersed into other small houses, leaving the pavilion free to be almost purely atmospheric. It served as a retreat from the main house, a place to read, reflect and entertain a small circle while remaining visually connected to the water and greenery that define Liselund.

Setting, restoration and subtle details

The Chinese Pavilion stands slightly apart from the main Liselund house, tucked into a soft fold of the terrain where the park’s paths seem to slow down. Its position allows filtered views of water, open lawn and the surrounding woodland, creating changing vistas from each window and doorway. From outside, the pavilion’s decorative profiles and colour palette stand out against the deep greens of summer and the pale trunks of the surrounding trees. In recent years the structure has undergone careful restoration under the stewardship of the National Museum. Craftspeople have repaired timber, refreshed the painted details and stabilised the delicate fabric of the building so that its lightness of appearance does not come at the cost of durability. The aim has been to preserve the impression that this is an airy, almost fragile pleasure house, while quietly ensuring that it can withstand another century of coastal weather.

Experiencing the pavilion today

Today, visiting the Chinese Pavilion is as much about the approach as the destination. You move through shifting scenes – shaded paths, views to ponds, glimpses of the small Liselund house – before the pavilion reveals itself. The building is compact; you can take in its details quickly, then linger outside where benches and lawns invite you to sit and absorb the wider landscape. The experience changes with the seasons. In spring, young leaves frame the pavilion in fresh colour; in high summer, it feels like a secret refuge from bright light; in autumn, fallen leaves pool around its base, heightening its stage‑set quality. Even on a grey or breezy day, there is pleasure in watching clouds race above its roof while the park’s old trees creak and sway around this enduring remnant of Denmark’s Romantic age.

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