Akademihaven Soro, Zealand, Denmark

5Niels E 5:00 PM Apr 24, 2016

A provincial gem not to be overlooked
We went there on a beautiful spring day, cool but sunny. It takes about an hour to get to the little city of Soro from Copenhagen center, either by car or by train. I cannot recommend the trip highly enough. One hour is enough to make you feel that you have left the 21st century with all its hectic and stepped into medieval times as you are now surrounded by beautiful old buildings, a magnificent park and a very pretty lake. And it is absolutely quiet, befitting an academy because this is one of the things you will encounter here. Academy is a slightly pretentious name for a high school. On the other hand here you encounter a boarding school going back to the 16th century. It is indeed a quite prestigious institution. Finishing with a high diploma from here is a valuable entry card. The main building of the academy is not more than a couple of hundred years old - fires have raged through the centuries. You can enter the building. You cannot wander around everywhere but you can pass by a couple of class rooms, take a peep into the cafeteria and just get a little sniff of the atmosphere. You will bump into young people everywhere which contributes to the feeling of study. Nearby you have a series of low modern buildings in which the students live. Even if these buildings are modern they have been well integrated into the old building mass. That does unfortunately not apply to all of the buildings on the magnificent grounds surrounding the academy, in particular not the white building right across from the church. Which brings us to the church, one of the finest in the country and originally the center for a very large and rich monastery. The church goes back to the 12th century as does most of the churches in Denmark. It was rebuilt in the 13th century after a devastating fire and thoroughly restored in the 19th century. The result is very beautiful. The church has a number of fine burial monuments. Even a couple of kings are resting here as well as important noblemen. The tomb of the famous author Holberg is here too. Outside you will find the tomb of one the most beloved poets of the country, B:S: Ingemann who in his time was also the director of the academy. After all of this you will want to take a walk through the gorgeous grounds, enjoy the view over the lake, watch the canoes rushing through the water and admire the many old trees which have seen so many generations pass by. Everything is very well maintained so it is a pleasure to walk around here. And now there is only a few minutes to a good restaurant which I am going to recommend to you in a separate review.

5ORNOMAD 5:00 PM Jul 14, 2015

Historical and a must stopover
Although you may not need many breaks driving to Copenhagen, Sorø is a small gem worth visiting. The garden of the Academy is beatiful and well designed. The Church one of Denmark's most historical, and you can walk around the lake in less than 90 minutes.