Present day Constantinsborg dates back to around 1400 when it was owned by Erik Jensen Munk and known as Stadsgaard. In 1210 there was a forest named
Stad in the area and is mentioned in the records of the
Ancient See of Aarhus which owned the forest at the time. It is therefore possible the original farm dates back to an even earlier time. When Erik Jensen Mun died, his son Peder Lykke, inherited the estate and managed it until his death in 1464. The manor stayed in the Lykke family until 1583 when Valdemar Parsberg sold it to
King Frederik II. King Frederik II bought the manor in order to expand his hunting grounds around
Skanderborg Palace. When Constantinsborg became
crown land it was made a part of
Havreballegård fiefdom. In 1661 the fiefdom - and Constantinsborg - were given to the
Dutch merchant
Gabriel Marselis in part-payment for debts incurred by the Danish state during the
Second Northern War. In 1667 Gabriel Marselis' son, Constantin Marselis, moved to Denmark to manage his father's many new estates. He moved into Constantinsborg which he named after himself. In 1683 Constantinsborg was officially recognized as a manor with privileges which indicates it was a substantial estate at the time. In 1699, Constantin Marselis died and his widow Sophie Elisabeth Charisius took over the manor and had it turned into a
fee tail. She married
Peter Rodsteen who was made a
Baron. When Rodsteen died in 1714 the manor passed to Sophie Elisabeth Charisius' nephew Christian Charisius who was married to Dorothea Cathrine Rosenlund. He died in 1724 and she the following year, after which the manor was inherited by their son Constantin August Charisius. Constantin dedicated himself to the administration of Constantinsborg during the 52 years he owned it. He managed to expand the estate, although it left him heavily in debt at this death in 1776. In 1787, Hans Frederik Fædder-Charisius took over Constantinsborg and was given permission to divide and sell the manor estate provided all profits were set aside for his descendants. The manor was auctioned in 1799. Fædder-Charisius himself bought the main building and lands while most of the attached farms and lands were sold off. When Fædder-Charisius died the manor was sold to Peder Jacob Møller in 1832 who in turn sold it in 1867 to Hendrik Pontoppidan. After purchasing Constantinsborg Hendrik Pontoppidan became heavily involved in agriculture and
Hedeselskabet. He had become wealthy through his trading in
Manchester and
Hamburg. In the 1840s Hendrik Pontoppidan was a representative for the
National Bank of Denmark. In 1851 he was made
Consul of the Danish state and he co-founded Aarhus Privatbank which eventually became one of the largest banks in Denmark. Hendrik Pontoppidan died in 1901 but he had already passed the manor on to his son Alfred Pontoppidan who had studied agriculture in
Scotland and
Hannover. Alfred Pontoppidan's management of Constantinsborg was a success and it became a centre for agricultural education in the area. In 1999, a Pontoppidan descendant sold Constantinsborg to
Bestseller founder,
Troels Holch Povlsen. == Architecture ==