1685-97: The worst 12 years in Møn´s history! Colonel Von Plessen
arrived with 4 out of 6 battalions of King Christian the 5th´s
royal Life guard on horse. He became head of the county on Møn and moved into
Nygård (Marienborg today), but he also had to find housing
for the life guard and the horses. So instead of rebuilding Stege, which was
almost ruined, he took the stones from the destroyed buildings and made improvements
on Nygård.
In 1690 Plessen tore down what was left of the two gate towers at Skammestræde
and Langestræde and the town wall to get stones to improve on Nygård and to
build 400 chimneys to the Guard Houses, each chimney needed 300 stones. It is
this demolition of Stege´s fortress that is known as the "the biggest robbery
in Møn´s history". Though in the last standing gate tower, Mølleporten,
he established a prison with two light and two dark cells but other than this
alteration nothing was rebuilt in Stege. As the Colonel also was the head of
the county he was to care for taxes to be collected, but he did not, so no money
was gathered to the town and nothing was handed over to the national bank.
In 1696 a new commission was sent to Møn, the poor condition of the county was
discovered, and Plessen was imprisoned.
All of Møn was in ruins, there was no administration in Stege, nothing worked
properly, it could only get better.
The King spared the people of Møn of taxes for 2 years, but it would take 100 years before Møn had fully recovered from the damages caused by Plessen.