Sorø Academy (Danish: Sorø Akademi) is a boarding school and gymnasium located in the small town of Sorø, Denmark. It traces its history back to the 12th century when Bishop Absalon founded a monastery at the site, which was confiscated by the Crown after the Reformation, and ever since, on and off, it has served as an educational institution, in a variety of forms, including as a knight academy founded by Christian IV and a venue for higher learning during the Danish Golden Age. Danish-Norwegian writer and academian Ludvig Holberg bequested most of his fortune to re-establishing the academy in 1750 after a devastating fire.

History

Christian IV's equestrian academy (1623–1665)

thumb|left|160px|Sorø Academy, Rosens Atlas, 177

thumb|200px|A lecture in an Equestrian Academy, painted by [[Reinhold Timm, who taught at Sorø from 1623, or Pieter Isaacsz for Rosenborg Castle; part of a series of seven paintings depicting the seven Liberal arts, here rhetoric. ]]

Sorø Academy traces its history back to 1140 when Archbishop Absalon founded the Cistercian Sorø Abbey in a remote woodlands setting on the shores of Lake Sorø on the island of Zealand. It developed into the most prominent and wealthy monastery in Denmark. After the Reformation in 1536, the Crown confiscated the Catholic Church's properties and the former abbey served first as an educational institution for Protestant priests before Frederick II turned it into a boarding school for an equal number of noble and commoner boys.

Sorø Academy was founded in 1623 when Christian IV turned the boarding school into an Equestrian Academy. Later attempts were made to transform it into a university proper but it only existed as such for about 20 years before closing in 1665.

Notable people

Former staff

  • Henrik Ernst (jurist), professor of jurisprudence and moral philosophy
  • Reinhold Timm (1623), painter
  • Abraham Wuchters (1639), painter
  • Johann Elias Schlegel (1748–1749), history, political sciences, trade sciences
  • Jens Schielderup Sneedorff (1751), political sciences
  • Johann Bernhard Basedow (1753), moral philosophy
  • Ove Høegh-Guldberg (1761–1764), statesman, historian, and de facto prime minister
  • Johan Theodor Holmskjold (1762–1765), medicine and natural history
  • Bernhard Severin Ingemann (1822), Danish literature
  • Frederik Johnstrup (1818–1894), mineralogy, natural science
  • Christen Dalsgaard (1862–1892), painter
  • Aage Blumensaadt (1889–1939), painter

Former students

  • Ulrik of Denmark (1611–1633), administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Schwerin, military
  • Esaias Fleischer (1633–1697), printmaker

Students after 1825

  • Hinrich Johannes Rink, geologist
  • Frederik Vermehren, painter
  • Carl Steen Andersen Bille, journalist, politician and civil servant
  • Fredrik Bajer (student 1848–54, did not graduate)
  • H.R. Hiort-Lorenzen, journalist and writer
  • Christian Henrik Arendrup, governor of the Danish West Indies
  • Martin Nyrop (attended 1859–1865), architect
  • Kristian Zahrtmann, painter
  • Hans Egede Budtz, actor
  • Herman Bang, writer
  • Poul Rasmusen, politician
  • Sigurd Langberg, actor
  • Ebbe Hamerik, composer
  • Hans Kirk, writer
  • Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen, writer
  • Aage Kann Rasmussen, engineer
  • Ove Arup, structural engineer
  • Erik Seidenfaden, journalist
  • Gunnar Seidenfaden, diplomat and botanist,
  • Mogens Boisen, officer and translator
  • Dan Fink, businessman
  • Villum Kann Rasmussen, engineer
  • Hans Engell, journalist, politician
  • Hans Ole Thers, composer
  • Christian Karsten Hansen, biotechnology entrepreneur
  • Trygvi Samuelsen, lawyer
  • Lars Faaborg-Andersen, ambassador
  • Eigil Nielsen, paleontologist

Other Danes associated with the academy include 19th-century painters Frederik Vermehren and Christen Dalsgaard, writer Hans Christian Andersen, sculptor Johannes Wiedewelt who created the monument to Holberg in the academy chapel, and geologist Hinrich Johannes Rink.

See also

  • Sorø Lake
  • Sorø Old Cemetery
  • Mørup

References

  • Sorø Akademi website
  • Stiftelsen Sorø Akademi website
  • Sorø Church and Academy, with many pictures
  • Scholars and Literati at the School of Sorø (1586–1800), in Repertorium Eruditorum Totius Europae/RETE.