This year I went to hunt some Vikings and pretty Danish towns. Here’s the usual Back with Booty-post. I started this blog in May 2005, so it’s the 20 year anniversary of The Lost Fort. A good reason for picture fun, after all.
The Danes love their flag, the Dannebrog; you’ll find it flying pretty much everywhere.
The sunny weather was typical for my tour; I only had two days with overcast sky and one day with some rain. But the wind was still cold – you better bring a jacket in a country where no place is more than 50 km distant from the sea.
Aarhus – while dating back to the Viking Age’s Aros – is today the second largest city in Denmark, and the one with some of the most experimental modern architecture. I’m more interested in historical buildings, but I took a few shots of the modern ones when I came across them during my walk in the city.
The inner city has some nice spots as well, like the way along the Å river. There are also plenty of museums – not all to my interest, but I should have planned for a day more to visit some of them. Well, if I need a reason for another visit ... *grin*
The cathedral, dedicated to St.Clement, patron of sailors, was built in the late 12th century in the Romanesque style. The material, brick stones, was not common in Denmark at the time and likely influenced by northern German churches. The same influence also led to a church makeover in the Gothic style in the second half of the 15th century. With a length of 93 metres, the cathedral is the largest sacral building in Denmark.
Some buildings of the old town around the cathedral have survived the various changes of the town centre, like this cute little lane. Though it has not always been a pretty place to live; once those houses were inhabited by poor people.
Den Gamle By (The Old Village) is a little time travel island hiding in the city, an open air museum that takes you back to the time of the 16th to 19th century, with historical houses that have been removed from their original sites in Denmark and found a new place here.
One museum I did not miss was the wonderful Moesgaard Museum with exhibits from the Stone Age to the Vikings, presented in a much more fun way than rows of vitrines. The modern building is also quite fascinating.
One of the highlights (well, rather dimly lit) is the Grauballe Man, a bog body from the late 3rd century AD who had his throat slit. He may have been a sacrifical victim. The body, which was found in 1952, is an unusually well preserved example of a bog body.
A silted up lake in the river valley of Illerup-Ådal has been a site of several Iron Age bog sacrifices of weapons and personal equipment of defeated enemies. Many of the weapons and personal belongings of the warriors are on display in the museum. The size of the most important fund layer points to the remains of a large battle nearby.
One of the fun bits: Before accessing that part of the exhibtion, you’ll pass a room with an animated diorama that makes you feel like being in the midst of a battle, with arrows whooshing over your head, and a rider coming towards you.
Another iconic bog find has been the Gundestrup Cauldron, of which a replica is shown in Moesgaard (the original is in Copenhagen). The cauldron dates from some time between 200 BC and 300 AD, and is one of the largest cauldrons ever found (diameter 69 cm, height 42 cm). Material and art show elements of Celtic and Thracian origin – one wonders how such an unusual piece found its way to Denmark.
Lindholm Höje near Aalborg is a large graveyard that has been in use from the 5th to the 11th century. Many of the graves are stone settings in the shape of ships, but there are also triangular and quadratic graves. Overall, there are about 700 graves, mostly cremation burials.
Remains of settlements have been found nearby as well. Towards the end of the 11th century, the area was covered by drifting sands and thus preserved. Excavations took place 1952-1960; today the entire field of burials can be visited. Some finds of grave goods are displayed in a local museum.
Trust me to find a castle ruin again. Kalø Castle was constructed in 1313 by King Erik VI who had some trouble with rebellious nobles and peasants in Jutland. So he put – among other fortresses spread over Jutland – a castle on a small island and connected it with the mainland by a 500 metres long embankment and a road which still shows mostly the original cobblestones, and very cobbly they are.
The castle was party dismantled only a few years later, but still in use, among others, as prison in the next centuries. Its most famous inmate was the later king Gustav Vasa of Sweden (1518), before he escaped to Lübeck in Germany. The castle fell into decay during the wars between Sweden and Denmark and was abandoned in 1645.
Ebeltoft is one of those charming small Danish towns with a centre still dominated by lanes with cute, colourfully painted little old houses. And Dannebrogs. *grin* The town is a tourist magnet in summer, but it wasn’t so crowded when I visited.
Ribe is considered to be the oldest town in Denmark (dating to the 8th century) and had been the most important Danish harbour at the North Sea during the Middle Ages (today, the coast line has changed and put the town several kilometres inland). Over the centuries, Ribe losts its importance, but the cathedral and town hall still prove its former greatness and wealth. The town also retains a considerable number of little old houses.
The town was hit by several catastrophes (floods, and the most common at a time where many buildings were made of timber: fires) during the 13th to 15th centuries, yet Ribe remained an important place; the town hall, built in 1496, is proof of continuing prosperity. During the Middle Ages, Ribe had not only been a major trade hub, but also housed a number of craftsmen working in metal, leather, and pottery.
The decline began in the 16th century with more floods, fires, pestilence, silting of the coastal lands that cut off the connection to the sea, and war between Denmark and Sweden. In the 17th century, Ribe was reduced to a minor town.
Those charming little houses mostly date to the 17th and 18th centuries; many older timber-based buildings have been destroyed over time. The houses near the river – my B&B was located in one such – once had been the homes of poor fishermen, minor craftsmen and such, crowded with large families, and not very romantic. But my room was lovely.
There are worse places to sit and have a beer in the evening than this spot at the river Å in Ribe. For me, Ribe stands as a good example for the famous Danish hygge. There were not so many tourists this time of the year, either.
Since finds from Viking times have been abundant, Ribe – then called Ripa – also has a Viking Museum and a reconstructed Viking village outside the town. The Viking Centre Ribe was one of the highlights of my journey.
The village was established in 1992 and shows buildings from the 7th to 10th centuries, among others a long house, a farmstead, and town houses at a market square. A church from 860 AD was added in 2015, and a ringwall fort is under construction.
What makes visiting this open air museum so much fun is that is has a lived-in feel. Viking reenactors can rent some of the reconstructed houses (ok, there is a modern bathroom hiding in one of them) during summer for a few weeks, which also serves for research purposes, because trying to come as close to real Viking life as possible - minus the fights *grin* - makes for new experiences and understandings of the time (f.e. that the smoke of the fireplace keeps most wee crawlies and buzzies away). Several of the reenactors I met were from Germany.
I also took a day tour to Mandø Island on the North Sea coast of Denmark. During high tide the way across the Wadden Sea is only open for special vehicles with high wheels, like the Wadden Sea buses pulled by tractors. The day started nice and sunny, but on the island, it turned cloudy and very windy and cold. I did a bit of hiking nevertheless, but didn't take many photos, because the dune landscape on the outer coast unfortunately looked a bit dreary.
The next part about Odense and some more Vikings can be found here.
Lovely stuff! Thank you for sharing your adventures!
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