| By Bicycle
| | Via the text icon You can reach a guide to a trip by bycycle in the northern parts of the Öresund Region.
You can go to the left menu and find more information in the historic part of Øresundstid.
You return to the guide when You click on the title "By Bicycle in the left meny.
(Nyt billede under produktion) |
For the tourist interested in exercise we here are suggestions as to how to experience the cultural heritage of the region, arts and crafts and culinary offers at reasonable price.
On the page menu of Øresundstid (Sound Times) you can read more of the historical background of the individual destinations.
Under Maps and Links there is a directory and links to the homepages of the individual destinations including opening hours and prices.
Day 1
The first day the tour starts in Elsinore. From the centre of Elsinore we cycle, via Marienlyst Allé by Gl.Hellebækvej a couple of kilometres to one of the Danish trade union´s strongholds – the LO-School.
The LO-School
The LO-School is a course and conference centre, where the Danish trade union in the middle of the 1960´s built a magnificent monument of a school to educate their shop stewards from all over the country.
The school is also known for its large collection of Danish post war art and the beautiful view to the Scanian landscape on the other side of the Sound.
The LO -School, Elsinore |
Hammermøllen
Hammermøllen in Hellebæk is an example of the earliest industrialization in Denmark. The mill was restored in 1980 so it appears as in 1765, when it was an important link in the extensive weapons production, which took place in the area. Placed in Hellebæk´s idyllic surroundings the mill is a popular outing for tourists and schools.
Hammermøllen |
Domain Aalsgaarde
The temperature in our Nordic latitudes is not normally suited for wine production. However, Domain Aalsgaarde´s geographical placement is an exception. An enthusiastic Danish wine farmer has established Denmark´s first vineyard with tour, talks and wine tasting. Five different white wine sorts are produced here.
Domain Aalsgaard | 
Domain Aalsgaard Guide |
The Flynderupgård Museum
The Flynderupgård Museum in Espergærde is beautifully situated between Egebæksvang Wood and the cultivated fields. They have changing cultural history exhibitions here, a fishing collection, an old grocery store, a class room, a peasant sitting room and a rose garden as in 1920. In the ”civic restaurant" old Danish courses are served. The museum also has an outdoors cultural centre with examples of the agriculture of the old days.
Flynderupgård | 
Flynderupgaard Guide |
Louisiana
Louisiana Museum for Modern Art in Humlebæk was established in 1958. The starting point was an old patrician villa from 1855 and the museum´s fascinating architectural design has been created in close connection with the terrain
The art museum with its permanent and changing exhibitions is one of the most visited museums in Denmark
From the museum there is also a magnificent view across the Sound to Hven and Scania.
Krogerup Home Farm
Krogerup Home Farm is an organic agriculture with a farm shop and café. It is situated just 500 metres from the Louisiana Museum and has an extensive production of vegetables. It is part of a larger organic development complex called “Årstiderne” (The Seasons). The home farm is the neighbour to the well known Krogerup Højskole. The landscape around Krogerup is being declared an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Krogerup Home Farm | 
Krogerup Home Farm Guide |
Andersen Art
Andersen Art, Strandvejen 390 in Espergærde, is a small, but exciting art gallery with changning exhibitions, sculpture garden, beautiful position and and a view of the Sound. The The patrician villa used to be a summer cottage owned by one of Denmark´s great politicians during the occupation, Christmas Møller.
Marienlyst Hotel and Nationernes Allé
The hotel dates back to1859, but is a modern hotel today by the banks of the Sound. The hotel offers bathing facilities with a tropical climate, terrace spa, sauna, massage and a view of the Sound and Kronborg.
Historically Marienlyst Hotel has been a fashionable meeting place for more than a hundred years, where a number of national and international personalities relate of their experiences here.
Close to the hotel we find Nationernes Allé. Before the tour takes us to Elsinore Hostel, we should look at the magnificent villas in Nationernes Allé. They were originally built for the more fashionable section of the hotel´s guests. Historically the houses are interesting. Some of them have traits of the national romantic Viking style.
Sur la Plage | 
Nationernas Allé |
Danhostel – Elsinore´s Hostel
Only a stone´s throw away from Marienlyst Hotel, Ndr.Strandvej 24, we find one of North Zealand´s best situated hostels, where it is possible to spend the night at a reasonable price. It is situated in beautiful natural surroundings with a private beach and comfortable rooms.
In Maps and Links via Elsinore Tourist Agency there are further details.
Day 2
And now we are going to Hven. In the morning we take the ferry "Harald Blåtand" from Elsinore harbour to the beautiful island.
Harald Blåtand | 
Harald Blåtand Guide |
Hven
Hven is all that is left of the isthmus, which until appr. 8.000 år ago, connected Scania and Zealand. Left was only the island of Hven
Hven is also the island, where good food and drink. A place for those, who appreciate life. Grapes are cultivated here and wine is made. The island has it´s own mineral water and they make their own rice. Here they cultivate the durum wheat, which is used in the island´s wonderful bread and pasta. Here is also garlic cultivation, a fishing smokehouse and goat cheese production. They also plan to have their own whisky distillery.
Hven is, in short, the perfect place for an excursion. Just follow the the weel maintained bicycle paths.
Map of Ven | 
The Bicycle Ride on Hven |
Sct. Ibb´s Medieval Church
Start with looking into the small medieval church, Sct.Ibb. It was the apostle Jacob, the patron saints of merchants, which became the patron saint of the church. The oldest part of the church is form the 13th century. The church vault is from the 15th century. Here they have recently uncovered remnants of murals.
The altarpiece from1578 is donated by Tycho Brahe, the worldfamous Danish astronomer, who also was the vassal on Hven in the end of the 16th century.
The magnificent view of the Sound from the top of Backafallens top increases the experience.
Artists and Craftsmen
Many artists and craftsmen have set up on Hven. The studios are there like a pearl of string. You won´t regret the visit.
Start with seeing the exhibition in the community centre. Right next is Tunaboden and Hven´s weaving workshop. Here the make the beautiful Malvalamp, but also summer hats and grass mats.
A few hundred metres further on you can visit the sculptor Lena Cedergren´s study, Landsvägen 259.
The Tycho Brahe Museum
Afterwards it is a good idea to go to the Tycho Brahe Museum, which is established in the former Allhelgonakyrkan (All Saints Church). Tycho Brahe was one of the world´s leading scientists and he lived and researched Hven from 1576-1597. Here he had the small castle Uranienborg, built, surrounded by the renaissance ideal of geometrically framed gardening. The castle was disgracefully demolished in the 17th century, but half the garden lay out has now been re-established with plants characteristic of the period.
Next to the castle he let build a subterranean observatory, Stjerneborg.
Tycho Brahe´s world wide fame is due to the fact that he in Hven built the first real science institution in Europe. The island became a stamping ground for scientists and royals from all over the continent.
In the museum you will get an impression of this. It is also possible to go down in the remnants of the subterranean Stjerneborg.
Tycho Brahe | 
Uranienborg |
Turistgården´s Restaurant etc.
We are approaching lunch time. This could with advantage be consumed at the restaurant on Turistgården. Free of charge, as an extra dessert, you can enjoy the view across the Sound to Denmark.
Hvendurum
If you go a bit back you can look in on the bakery, Hvendurum. When you open the door you will enjoy the smell of newly baked bread. They also produce pasta from the durum wheat, which is grown on the island. Hven is the only place in Europe where this species of grain is cultivated
Cassiopeia Trädgårdsgalleri
Close by is Cassiopeia Trädgårdsgalleri. Here you can find beautiful things for your garden and your home.
Anis Galleri
Around the corner, on Norreborgsvägen, you will find Anis Galleri. Here you can buy unique glass and ceramics, made by the gallery.
The Silversmith
Next to it is the Silversmith, where Jan-Åke Ståhl designs and sells jewellery and Hven souvenirs in silver and gold.
Backafallsbyn
After lunch you can go to Backafallsbyn. Here is an opportunity to stay the night in a casual environment. While twilight falls, you can enjoy a well-prepared dinner, perhaps with fine wines.
The whiskey bar speaks for itself. It is considered one of the best in the world. It offers appr. 500 different brands, among them Sweden´s largest collection of Single Malt whiskey. However, it is not required that you taste all the brands!
Day 3
On the third day of the bicycle tour we are still on Hven. The many craftsmen on the island often have open workshops, where you can observe their craftsmanship, and on the culinary front you can enjoy the small enthusiastic foods enterprises with each their speciality.
Marielund´s Artists´ Farm and Sophie Design
In her rebuilt childhood home, Marielunds Artists´ Farm, the painter Céleste hold exhibitions and courses with her collegue Stig-Owe Jemseby. The artists´ farm is surrounded by a beautiful sculpture- and flower park.
Close by you can pop in at Silverblänk & Guldkorn Sophie Design; a workshop selling art and handicrafts.
The Sculpture Park in Marielund | 
Celeste-Joy |
On the Road
If you continue further down the road, there are more studios and smaller eating places with various specials.
Tunagården
Landsvägen 142. Here Gunillas Glass & Bernt H Ceramics have workshops with various handicrafts.
Potteverkstan
Landsvägen 134. Ceramic manufacture
Hvens Getost (Goat Cheese)
Landsvägen 66. Nina and Glenn Björne has established a farm shop with their own production of a number of specialities: Goats´ milk, goats´ cheese, mutton, etc..
The northern end of the road is a steep hill , which ends at Bäckvikens havn. From here boats go to Råå. In the waiting time you can enjoy an ice-cream from Hven´s Ice Cream Factory. You can buy them in the harbour´s kiosk.
Hven’s Goat Cheese Guide |
Råå
The sail to Råå takes an hour. The idyllic fishing village with the low town houses along the narrow alleyways and lanes has had a dramatic and changeable existence. In the 17th and 18th century Råå was the scene for several violent acts of war. Around the year 1900 Råå was the largest fishing town in Sweden.
After the landing many tourists have their lunch at Havnekroen, where you are in close contact with the boats and the activities on the harbour.
Ramlösa
In 2007 Ramlösa Brunns celebrate their 300th anniversary. The Ramlösa of today is characterized by housing and office areas, but some of the buildings from the heyday are still there. Royals and other prominent people came here and if you use your imagination you can see them walking about in the beautiful brunnspark, while waiting for a restorative drink from some of the springs, a soothing bath or participated in elegant dinners on the Brunnshotel. Perhaps some were boarding a horse drawn carriage in order to go to the Sound beach. Others, perhaps, were patients on their way to Brunnsparken´s Hospital for a more thorough treatment.
Ramlösa as a Refugee Camp
Many living Danes and Norwegians have a great deal of gratitude for Ramlösa Brunn, which during the Second World War functioned as a refugee camp for those, who had fled the German occupying power in Denmark and Norway.
The Spa Hotel |
Pålsjö
There are a few kilometres from Ramlösa to Pålsjö, but you can take interesting stops along the way: The popular "söder", centre with shopping and intensive ferry traffic, the modern housing area in Norra Hamnen and the street life around Gröningen and Fria Bad on a nice summer´s day.
Pålsjøbadet is in the northern end of the beach promenade and is a classic bathing house on poles in the water. When you are there you can spoil yourself after the exhausting bike ride with a herbal bath and a comfortable massage.
Some might be tempted to have a cold drink in Pålsjö Kro, which is only a few steps away.
Pålsjöbaden in Helsingborg |
The Thalassa Hostel
The hostel is a splendid for an overnight stay. From the Pålsjöbadet you cycle through scenic areas to the overnight accommodations in Pålsjö Wood. Here they have comfortable rooms with your own balcony, from where there´s a view of the seat.
You can have dinner at Thalassas à la Carte Restaurant.
Villa Thalassa | 
View from Villa Thalassa | 
Villa Thalassa Guide |
Day 4
On the last day of the bicycle trip we visit the well-known tourist attractions in Helsingborg. It doesn´t matter if you´ve seen them before. They all deserve more than one visit! But we wake up in the hostel in Pålsjö Wood.
Pålsjö Wood
If you choose to take a morning stroll in Pålsjö Wood, you´ll see a varied life: Joggers, cyclists, dog walkers and people, who just want to experience nature.
Pålsjö Cemetery
The trip may continue to the war cemetery. Here you will get a moving impression of Sweden´s dilemma during the Second World War, when the Swedish state felt it necessary to defend its neutrality in spite of the population´s sympathy for the Allies. Not everybody knows that quite a few soldiers from Germany, England. Canada and Australia were killed on Swedish territory and are buried here.
War Graves in Pålsjö |
Sofiero
From Thalassa Sofiero, Helsingborg´s most popular tourist attraction, is only a five minutes bike ride away. Sofiero Castle was the Swedish royal family´s summer castle until 1973. King Gustav VI Adolf fell ill that year during his stay at Sofiero and died a few days later in Helsingborg Hospital. It turned out that the king has willed the castle and the park to Helsingborg municipality. They now own it all.
It is especially the park with its unique collection of rhododendrons, which each year attracts thousands of tourists to Sofiero. In the main building there is a restaurant as well as a bistro.
Sofiero Castle |
Dunkers Arts Centre
From Sofiero there are 5-6 kilometres to the centre of Helsingborg. That won´t take long. It is downhill most of the way and there is often a tailwind from the north west.
The arts centre is situated at Norra Hamnen and contains an arts hall, exhibition halls, laocal historical exhibitions, a theatre, a music school, a restaurant etc.
Dunkers Kulturhus |
The Church of Saint Mary
Wedged between the houses, just south of Storttorget, you will find the Church of Saint Mary. Together with Kärnan, these are Helsingborg´s finest medieval gems. The Gothic church is from the 15th century and contains many art treasures from Nordic Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The famous Diderik Buxtehude was the organist in the Church of Saint Mary in the 1650´s.
The Western Front of the Church of Saint Mary | 
The Vault of the Church of Saint Mary |
The Central Helsingborg
When you are in the middle of town, it is tempting to go shopping in the many shops, or perhaps just a stroll down Kullagatan, the first pedestrianized street in Scandinavia.Map
| | Here we offer a guide to a tour by bike in the northern part of the Öresund Region.
Via the linkicon you can reach homepages, where you can get informations about prizes, booking etc.
If You click on "By bike" in the left meny You will return to the guide.
|
LO-school
| | The LO-School in Elsinore is an example of the high quality building activities, which took place in the Sound region after the Second World War.
On both sides of the Sound there are fine examples of how the innovative architecture of the 1930´s were carried on. The integration of buildings and landscape prioritized. |
Elsinore Grows
In the inter-war period a fine building tradition was developed in Elsinore by the renowned mayor Peder Christensen (King Peder). They started early with non-profit building, co-operative houses and cluster houses, for instance ”Hamlet´s Vænge” (1920) and the so-called ”Negro Village”, which became a model for many others. King Peder´s ambition was to create a model municipality, especially when it came to houses, and he succeeded.
Just before the Second World War the municipality stopped interfering in the house building and in 1938 the task was handed over to a newly established cooperative housing society. The building activity during the occupation was limited, there was great demand for houses, and in 1946 500 families did not have a home. The first great projects after the war was the neighbourhood ”Rolighed”. 17 blocks of flats were finished in 1951. The project, which had been designed by the architect V. Drosted, was quite unconventional as the houses were not placed in a long row, but had been adapted to the landscape and the terrain.
The Sound region in 2013? | 
Roligheden |
Modern Building Techniques
In the following years the neighbourhoods ”Blicherparken” and Gefionsparken” were built. In 1953 the first prefab construction buildings in concrete, ”Grønningen”, which was finished in 1957. Only the group heating station’s chimney was built by masons. The rest was made in concrete on the spot and was assembled by specially trained workers. The laundry room was furnished with modern electric machines, which could lighten the load of the hard-working housewife. Approximately 250.000 entered the labour market in the 1950´s.
By the end of the 1950 Elsinore was a town in rapid development. The new mayor, Sigurd Schiøtz, expressed his hopes for Elsinore´s expansion like this; ”We want a large town, not a large city”. In 1961 ”Sundparken” was built, a project in three stages with typical block of flats adjusted to the surroundings, but not as convincingly made as the earlier ”nature-adapted” projects.
The ideas about the interplay between the modern house building and its environment go back to the early industrialization. Through so-called ”park building” they tried to place the houses near green spaces. The first functionalistic building projects, for instance ”Blidah Park” at Strandvejen in Hellerup, opened in the beginning of the 30´s new possibilities for the placing of buildings. These projects were probably the models for ”Rolighed” and other building projects in Elsinore.
Grønningen |
Utzon´s Cluster Houses
When the architect Jørgen Utzon in 1958-60 designed his famous cluster houses, the Kingo houses in Elsinore and later in Fredensborg (1962-63, he probably knew about the local building tradition and its efforts to adapt to the surroundings. The placement of the individual houses is the most important in this these built-up area. Every house is shut in, but it still merges with the other houses and form a coherent unit. The Kingo-area with its 63 patio houses was listed in 1987. Jørgen Utzon also designed several private houses on both sides of the Sound.
Utzon´s Kingo House | 
Building Plan | 
Drawing | 
Oversæt | 
Oversæt |
The LO-School, Elsinore Folk High School
Elsinore´s traditional role as one of Denmark´s largest industiral towns since the end of the 19th century, was behind the decision to build the united larbour-movement´s largest folk high school close to the town..
The original architectural competition was won by the world famous Danish architect, Jørgen Utzon, who wanted to build a high-rise block in the hilly terrain, but it was the winners of the second prize, who was given the assignment
They chose to ”lay down the high-rise block” and design the school as a modern village with a medieval and south European element. The main building with education premises, restaurant etc. is centrally placed and around it six building are grouped, which contain the rooms of the participants in the courses.
The school was opened in 1969 and is together with the contemporary Louisiana in Humlebæk a popular resort for architects from all over the world, who admire the simple architecture and its interaction with the surroundings.
The large area around the school has meant that the school since 1969 has been enlarged several times.
A large art collection with around a thousand paintings - mainly Danish contemporary art after the Second World War - is there for the benefit of the many people, who go there.
The LO -School, Elsinore |
Kvickly – The Epoch of the Supermarket
Around 1960 the development towards welfare gained speed. This was evident in the increased consumption and the changed shopping and consumption habits. The co-op in Elsinore had successfully extended its assortment of goods with mopeds, TV’s and furniture. They took the consequences and started in 1961 to build a supermarket, designed by the architect Mads Drosted, 36.000 square metres of which 19.000 square metres was shop floor. May 6th 1965 Denmark´s largest co-op shop with a 45 metres long refrigerated counter opened.
Kvickly was built in an old industrial lot in the centre of Elsinore. At the same time a few other houses were built in the middle of town, the present Danske Bank corner house (with façades in marble, glass and copper) and the bank, Bikuben´s counterpart in Axeltorv. In other respects the Elsinore centre is marked by a preserving redevelopment policy.
Kvickly´s Department Store |
The Municipal Reform in 1970
In connection with the municipal reform in 1970 Denmark’s largest rural municipality is joined with the typical market town of Elsinore. This gave Elsinore opportunities to expand in new areas. A new centre was established in the area ”Prøvestenen”, where also earlier estates, like Vapnagård, was made into enormous housing estates. In time the market town grew together with the coast communities Snekkersten and Espergærde.
The redevelopment of the old Elsinore continued in the end of the 60´s with the houses in ”Lappen”. This work became a model for the preserving redevelopment of the town´s old centre, which was carried by the town council in 1972.
Vapnagård |
Espergærde – The Commuters´ Paradise
Espergærde, an old fishing village on the southern edge of town, spread out and the lille town Mørdrup was soon swallowed. Tikøb municipality also started to have growing pains. Partly the pressure on the coastline of the municipality was increased and partly the first motorway in the country (between Elsinore and Copenhagen) opened up new perspectives. Now you could go to your work place in Copenhagen in less than an hour.
In 1959 the idea of expanding Espergærde arose. It was calculated that the population would increase from 4.000 to 15.000-18.000 inhabitants. Two architects, Peer Bruun and Per Christiansen were hired to design the so-called ”white town”. It was to contain houses, schools, institutions, post office and bank, sports ground, church, green areas and a large shopping centre, i.e. everything which make up a town´s structure – possibly except a historical background.
The White City |
New Tendencies
Close and low building has in time become a standard and new variations of the theme are constantly emerging. One example is ”Sjølundsparken” in Hellebæk from 1978. Here the modern, Swedish house fabrication has become a new touch. Next to Sjølundsparken is a whole residential area with Swedish standard houses and they exist today all over North Zealand. The explanation is the low production costs. On the other hand today you can see expensive residential areas, designed by Danish architects in Norra Hamnen in Helsingborg. The integration have come far when it comes to the building of houses.
The Sjølund Park | 
Somewhere in Sweden? | 
Somewhere in Denmark? | 
The north harbour Helsingborg |
Hammarmöllan
| | Elsinore. The point of departure was the utilization of the waterpower in the area. In Hellebæk it was the fabrication of weapons, primarily rifles to the Danish army. Hammermøllen, in the middle of the picture, was the central part in the fabrication lay out. |
Industrialization in Hellebæk
The Importance of Water Power
At the beginning of the building of Kronborg in the time of Frederik II, they discovered the possibilities in the utilization of the waterpower of the area, primarily in Hellebæk. In order to procure bread for the many workers they built a corn mill close to the beach, but under Christian IV they also started to become interested in other projects. When they found bog iron ore in the area, he organized a project to smelt and cultivate iron ore from here. In 1601 Poul Smelter was appointed to:
“in the new melting mill, which we have built at our castle, Kronborg, with diligence and without delay to smelt and cultivate the iron ore, which is found in the clay”.
The First Experiments with Iron Production
The iron production experiments were never a success, it was transferred to Norway instead, but the carried on forging a considerable amount of different iron material, more than 10.000 pieces of smelting goods for Frederiksborg Castle under the direction of Caspar Fincke, who was a master at the mill in the period 1622-30. There were several different products like locks, hinges, latches and grates. A copper mill was also built in the area, probably with water from Kobberdammen (the Copper Dam) as motive power, but the circumstances here are not clear. The copper plates were to be used for roof on the king´s many buildings. The total plant worked until 1650, but was destroyed by the Swedes in the war of 1658. It took another 100 years before things started up again.
The conditions for the whole enterprise were the utilization of the water resources and the extensive regulation system, which was to ensure a stable water supply all year round.
The Central Area for the Utilization of the Waterpower
The central area for the utilization of the waterpower was Hellebækken (The Helle Brook), which ran from Bondedammen to the beach with a drop of more than 20 metres. The work with damming and utilizing the waterpower system was begun in 1575 with labour from Elsinore. At first they began work on the lower part of the system, but as early as 1577 a channel between Sortesø and Klaresø (lakes) were dug. It took a lot of work to maintain the water system and the mills.
Hammermøllen | 
The Water System in Hellebæk |
The Rifle Factory
In the beginning of the 18th century there were plans to place a rifle factory in Hellebæk, but it was not until the works was put up for auction in 1743 and regiment quartermaster Stephan Hansen from Elsinore bought it for 15.250 rix-dollars, that something happened.
Stephan Hansen was good example of a commoner, originally a farmer´s son, who with diligence and industry worked his way up in society. In connection with the building of the rifle factory he was seen as a private entrepreneur and he had the monopoly of rifle manufacturing for 20 years. In 1743 he was making a career for himself in the military and he also functioned as a grocer in Elsinore. In the period 1750-70 he also had commercial rights in the Faroe Islands. Around 1750 he built Hellebækgård in connection with his enlargements of the business.
Stephan Hansen managed to re-organize and renew the works. Old buildings were renovated, he called in specialists from abroad and built a number of buildings, among them the characteristic yellow houses in Bøssemagergade in Hellebæk, where a number of craftsmen and their journeymen lived and worked.
Contemporary Map of the Plant
In 1752 an employee at the works drew a map of the plant. The map shows the distance from Bondedammen to the coast. According to the map there were two hammer mills at this time. It is assumed that one had a so-called over drop wheel, the other as can be seen on the restore mill a under drop wheel. The original mill was rebuilt in the time of Stephan Hansen and was finished in 1765, the same year the state bought the works back.
In connection with the restoration of the mill in 1980 the enlarged mill from 1765 was reconstructed. The mill wheels were placed at the house ends. The highest wheel, 6 metres in diameter and ¾ metres in width, powered the bellows to the forge, while the lower wheel, 5 metres in diameter and 1,5 metres wide, powered two hammers, a so-called stretch hammer, whose head weighed 100 kilos and a barrel hammer, which weighed 20 kilos. There were also connections to the bellows in the loft.
Map of the Plant 1752 | 
Hammermøllen | 
Cross Section of the Mill Works | 
The new Hammer Mill |
An Example of the Transition from Craft to Industry
The interesting thing about the plant in Hellebæk is its character of transition form from craftsman like production to industry.
Characteristic of the craft was that a few skilled workers individually designed the products with simple tools and usually to a known market, like for instance Elsinore. In contrast the industrial industry was targeted against an unknown, or variable market and the production was divided into sub-processes and was carried out by way of machines, which was operated mechanically.
Manufacture
Manufacture was characterized with the gathering of a large number of workers in one place (building). This was a beginning division of labour, but still not a common power supply, which dictated the procedure. This production form existed in Denmark as early as the time of Christian IV in the form of state manufacturers, which were to supply the court with for instance silk products.
In this form it was a question of a national self-supplying strategy, and a “closed” market, which was to provide independence in strategic areas. Deliveries of gunpowder, bullets and so on were also characteristic and this was where the state´s interest in the rifle factory entered the picture.
Transference Industry
The transference industry primarily focused on the organization of the production with regards to the financing and sale of the goods. The production itself transferred to the workers´ homes, typically in connection with early textile production. The transferor provided raw materials for production, often also the work tools and bought and sold the goods. This production form was characteristic for early textile production in Denmark and still exists in the form of home seamstresses.
It could be interesting to try and determine what kind of factory the rifle factory was. To help this it could be useful to involve a description of the procedure:
“In order to follow the development of Hellebæk it can be useful to see, how rifles were produced and how the development in the construction of the rifles proceeded. The fabrication included rifles, ramrods and bayonets. The single parts were manufactured in separated mills and workshops. The gun barrels were forged in Hammermøllen. The iron was forged into a strip, which was a little longer than the actual barrel. The strip was bent on an anvil into a U-form. Then the iron was bent over a mandrel. The iron was heated to welding temperature and welded together over a mandrel under a water hammer with sinkers with cylindrical hollows in both anvil and hammer. When a plug was welded in one end, the barrel was ready for boring and grinding. These operations took place in special mills.
A capable smith could forge 2 1/2 barrels in one workday, probably 12 hours. Ramrods and bayonets were forged in a special hammer mill; they also had their own grinding mills. Smiths, who had works shops in connection with their houses, forged the locks and other accessories. There were also works shops for the stocks, which were made of walnut wood, or, for the less fine rifles, elm.
When the barrel was finished it was tested by the “test master” in the “the Test House”, which still exists in Hellebæk. The building was divided in two. One was brick and had a tile roof. This was the test master’s workshop.... During the test the barrels were fastened up to 50 at the time. There was a groove for gunpowder, which could be ignited from outside...”
“Of the tested rifles 4,5% were blown up at the test of a total production of 88.700 barrels and of the finished rifles 18,2% were discarded. Left were 70.000 pieces (the period 180-1819). It was therefore not strange that riflemen said a prayer before they fired a shot, and fast shooting was not possible.
However, some of the rifles that were discarded in Copenhagen were used. They were used as payment overseas, for slaves, for instance. Many of these rifles blew up rather quickly, but that did not bother the sellers”.
To Kisling´s description can be added that the master journeyman as a rule could choos from receiving raw materials (iron and coal) measured out, or get the work on contract and then pay for the raw materials. It is also assumed that the employed gunsmiths have been able to carry out all the processes in the manufacture, but in practice the singular processes have been specialized.
The State Interferes
In 1765 the state bought the plant in Hellebæk back from Stephan Hansen for the amount of 120.000 rix-dollars. In 1767 the king almost handed over the plant to major general J.F. Classen, which already had a deed on the powder works in Frederiksværk, in exchange of the yearly deliverance of 600 rifles.
However the minister of finance H.C. Schimmelmann interfered and occasioned that the plant was put up for an auction, where he bid 1.000 rix dollars over the son of Stephan Hansen and acquired the plant for 70.000 rix dollars.
Hellebæk Farm |
The Industrial Baron
H.C. Schimmelman was, like Stephan Hansen, an upstart, the son of a Pomeranian grocer and already very rich, when he was attached to the Danish government as a financial advisor and guarantor. He arranged big loans to the Danish state and reorganized the state finances.
He himself bought the estate Lindenborg and was ennobled (baron). In this connection his purchase of the state´s sugar plantations with refineries to match in the West Indies for 400.000 rix-dollars, is also very interesting.
Schimmelmann (1724-1782) | 
H.C. Schimmelmann (1724-1782) | 
The Frigate Fredensborg |
The Triangle Trade
With the purchase of the rifle factory in Hellebæk Schimmelmann was personally able to the characteristic triangle trade between Europe, Africa and America. Manufactured goods like guns were sent from Europe to Africa, where the goods were traded for slaves, who where sent to the West Indies. From here raw materials like sugar, which were sent to Europe for further processing. Schimmelmann also had a monopoly of the sugar sale in Norway.
Thus Schimmelmann had a share in the slave trade and one of the slave ships bore the name “Countess Schimmelmann” H.C. Schimmelmann´s son, Ernst, later worked actively for the abolishing of the Negro trade. In 1792 a transition period of ten years were introduced with a prohibition against the import of slaves to the West Indies, but they were allowed to be traded on the islands, and married couples and children could still be separated at a sale.
Muzzle Loader – an Obsolete Construction
In Stephan Hansen´s time 300 rifles were manufactured yearly, in the period 1769-1800 approximately 6000 a year. The rifle production continued through the 19th century, but during the war in 1864 the slow muzzle loaders showed themselves to be technologically obsolete and the production was abandoned.Flynderupgård
| | Flynderupgård´s Main Building
In Elsinore people were accustomed to nature worship and summer residents. By the end of the 18th century the local middle classes began to leave the town in order to spend leisure time in country houses in the environs.
At first inside the municipality, later further out in the country, for example in Nyrup, Fairyhill, Claythorpe and Gurre. |
Summer Residents
Around the middle of the 19th century different aspects of the mentality and lifestyle of the middle classes were taking shape. The fight for an existence did no longer overshadow everything else and a characteristic distinction between work and leisure were developing. Leisure time was invented, so to speak and nature became a good place for meditative and recreational activities. This resulted in an extensive leisure and holiday life, which took place on both sides of the Sound with summer resident life, spas, hotels and the like.
Elsinore as an Example
Nature worshipping and summer life was and early feature in Elsinore. As early as the end of the 18th century the local middle classes in Elsinore had begun to leave the town and spend their leisure time on summer estates in the vicinity. At first inside the boundaries of the municipality, later further out in the country like Nyrup, Fairyhill, Claythorpe and Gurre.
At firs tit was the many Englishmen in town, who knew the custom from back home, later others, among them the merchant Jean Jacob Claessen, who bought several estates in the environs around 1790. The practise spread gradually and in the course of the 19th century Hellebæk and northeast Zealand as a whole became a popular resort for holidays for the Copenhagen middle classes.
A somewhat grandiose example of the ambitions of the well-off middle classes to compare with the English lesser nobility is found in the architecture of the main building of Flynderupgård in Agnetevej in Espergærde.
City Dwellers in the Country | 
Summer Residents | 
Fairyhill |
Flynderupgård | 
The Steamship |
The North Coast 1820 | 
Ålsgårde 1880 | 
The Summer Estate Belvedere | 
Family Gathering |
The New Infrastructure
An important factor in this was the gradually improved infrastructure, especially the steam ships and railways. Elsinore was the first provincial town, which was visited by Denmark’s first steam ferry, “Caledonia” as early as 1819. Throughout the 1920´s and 30´s there was irregular traffic along the coast. At the end of 1842 there was a permanent steam ship connection via the ferry “Hamlet” between Elsinore and Copenhagen. In 1945 the service also included Helsingborg. Moreover, from 1856 there was a permanent connection between Elsinore and Helsingborg.
This meant that it was possible to transport family members and luggage over greater distances. The steam ships landed at various places along the way from where people were rowed ashore to the desired summer residences. With the steam ships and the railway connection between Copenhagen and Elsinore via Hillerød it was possible for the head of the family to travel to the city and take care of business in the summertime too.
Caledonia | 
Hamlet | 
Ophelia | 
Vedbæk´s Harbour | 
The North Railway |
The North Railway | 
Train Timetable | 
The Hornbæk Railway | 
Klampenborg |
Officials and Artists
At first it was mainly the higher officials and artists, which visited North Zealand. The Collin family and the married couple, the actress, Johanne Louise Heiberg and her husband, the poet arbiter of taste Johan Ludvig Heiberg, were among the first to visit the coast north of Elsinore.
The Heibergs knew the increasing leisure time culture from Copenhagen and they now actively participated in the movement. Johanne Louise Heiberg depicted her first encounter with Hellebæk as a contrast to the ”city life” of Copenhagen in her memoir, ”Et liv genoplevet i erindringen".
The Holiday Area
After the artists came the town middle classes, and gradually the life of the summer residents became a must for the city people, as it is depicted in Herman Bang´s biting text Landliv. Bang knew the modern city life as well as the country leisure life, perhaps mostly known from his novella Sommerglæder, which pretends to take place in Jutland. The subject is also referred to in Herman Bang´s journalism, as when he wrote about Hellebæk in Illustreret Tidende in 1885:
»Nu er det for sent at skrive om Hellebæk. Naar Regissørklokken har lydt, er Lejet ikke mere interessant. Feriesommeren er forbi, og det rigtige Efteraar, det er endnu ikke kommet. Maaske kan vi tage derop en Dag fra Byen, naar det gaar til Ende med September, og de sidste flyttevognes Spor er slettet ud. Så holder jeg af det deroppe. Da er Naturen blevet ene. Den har faaet Tid til at blive sig selv igen. Den har rystet af sig alle Sommergæsternes profane Aah, og den har glemt Turisterne. Der er blevet stille i Skoven. Tyst sysler Pan. Letbenet vildt tegner over Engen flygtende Skygger, naar, for at drikke, Bredden af Skovsøens Vand. Gulnede Elme hviske saa sagte derover.
Luften er klar. De første Blade faldt i Gaar langs Stien. De dufte nu, mens de hviske«.
Ålsgårde 1880 | 
Hornbæk Beach 1906 | 
The Coastal Road Snekkersten | 
Summer Residents in Hornbæk. | 
The Joys of the Summer Residents |
Twine House in Snekkersten | 
Hotel Gefion |
The Tourist Industry
Holger Drachmann, who had grown up in Fredensborg, knew northeast Zealand intimately and spent time in Hellebæk, Hornbæk, Snekkersten and in "Marianelund" in Gurre. In his story "Skraaplaner" from 1881 he reflects on the importance of the summer residents for the local communities and their development.
The artists put up at first the existing inns, or privately, but gradually an industry of boarding houses and seaside hotels sprung up. As Drachmann wrote the summer residents started to buy land and houses and clientele broadened. The artists fled to other and less crowded areas in the holiday area. This was the case with Holger Drachmann. However, he died in a private clinic in Hornbæk in 1908.
H. C. Andersen as a Summer Resident
H.C.Andersen is known in posterity for his many travels abroad and his many visits to the landed gentry. Lesser known perhaps is his short visits in North Zealand, where he visited friends and acquaintances, who were summer residents. Primarily the Collin family, who lived in the country in and around Hellebæk in the 1860´s and 70´s.
H.C. Andersen had a somewhat strained relationship with the north coast and after a passage in 1837, it was not until 1864 that Andersen had a short stay in the newly opened Hotel Marienlyst with his young friend, the ballet dancer Harald Scharff. The train service from Copenhagen to Elsinore was opened in 1864 and that marked the beginning of a number of short visits to the north coast in the following years.
In 1867 Andersen was back again. The Collin family had bought a summer cottage on the slope. Andersen stayed for lunch, but took his dinner in Hotel Marienlyst. The two hour train journey from Elsinore to Copenhagen seemed to suit Andersen, who visited Hellebæk that same year once again.
Around 1870 Andersen was twice in Elsinore and Hellebæk, the first time to visit the Collin family and “see their new house”. The second time Andersen put up at Hotel Brix in Elsinore. That was probably the last time H.C. Andersen visited these parts, as a diary note from 1873 testified that he received a visit from Mrs. Collin from Ellekilde. H.C. Andersen died in 1875.
The North Railway | 
The Location of the Hotel | 
The Mature Andersen |
Train Timetable | 
Transport From the Station |
Up and Down the Coast
The writer Meir Aron Goldschmidt has also contributed with depictions of the life along the coast, for example in the long short story Ravnen (The Raven). In this story you can make out the clash between the traditional life form on the coast and the intrusive industrial culture. In the short story En dampskibstur from 1883 ”…the human spirit chases away nature´s spirit…” and the dream life of the protagonist plays a prominent part – a new epoch in the intellectual life is ushered in
A stay in on of the seaside hotels of the age is depicted by the German writer, Thomas Mann, whose novel´s final chapters take place in Hellebæk-Aalsgaard. The main character has an identity crisis and makes use of his stay at the seaside hotel for some soul-searching. The local population plays a part as representatives of the cool, assured side of his personality, as opposed to the other side, his temperamental, Mediterranean ancestors.
August Strindberg, who for a number of years was at work in the vicinity of Copenhagen, put up privately in Hornbæk in 1901 with his new wife Harriet Bosse. That lasted until he attacked a photographer, who wanted to take a picture of his wife in her bathing costume.
The Steamship Horatio | 
Ålsgårde Seaside Hotel | 
Søndre Strandvej | 
Strindberg in Hornbæk |
Seaside Life in the Year of 1900
With the summer holiday life on the coasts of the Sound region came the seaside life, which at first wasn´t allowed directly from the beach, but only from bathing jetties and cubicles, or the gender divided public baths, which was source of a characteristic architecture along the coast.
With the parcellation and the building of summer houses, the holiday life became more formalized. It became an object for investments for the middle classes and creates another dimension in the life of the family. In many ways other, more gentle rules of conduct became prevalent.
Emma Gad |
Ålsgårde 1880 | 
Beach Life | 
Snekkersten´s Cold Bath Houses | 
Snekkersten´s Cold Bath Houses |
The Coastal Road Snekkersten | 
Helgoland | 
The Cold bath House in Landskrona |
Pålsjöbaden in Helsingborg | 
Snekkersten Public Bath |
Seaside Life in Hornbæk | 
Hornbæk Beach | 
Borupgaards Bathing Hut |
Marienlyst Hotel
| | The Marienlyst Seaside Hotel became the fashionable stamping ground visited by royalty as well as the middle classes, and where you could enjoy yourself with bathing, outdoor life and diversions in the adjacent late-romanticist park, which ostensibly held Hamlet’s grave as well as the spring of Ophelia. |
Marienlyst Seaside Hotel
The improved communications also meant that the leisure life in North Zealand gradually took on a more international stamp. An important step towards this was the establishment of Marienlyst Seaside Hotel in 1859. The starting point was the existing Marienlyst Castle, which was expanded with buildings until the erection of the present main building around 1897 – the same year Kystbanen (the coast railway) was opened. For a while Marienlyst Hotel was owned by the Elsinore municipality, but was passed into private ownership in 1882.
In “Badetidende” from 1879 it was possible to read in Danish and German which bathing guests are present and which members of the town middle class have season tickets for the bathing resort. Furthermore are stated rates for the use of the “Spa and Hamlet’s Terasse”, timetable for steam ships and trains, rates for “hot baths, mineral baths, mineral waters, stream-heavy rain and showers”. And of course the thermometer reading for the previous week, a real Danish summer, for instance June 30th: The air - 16 degrees Celsius, the water – 14 degrees Celsius, midday.
Marienlyst 1891 | 
Advertisement | 
Marienlyst Seaside Hotel |
The Location of the Hotel | 
The First Hotel Building |
Beach Life |
The North Railway |
Transport From the Station | 
Marienlyst Seaside Hotel | 
New Main Building |
Nationernas Allé |
A Fashionable Meeting Place
Celebrities from home and abroad visited the fashionable Marienlyst, even the Danish and Swedish royal couple, and in the park surrounding Marienlyst castle a romantic garden, which was said to hold the grave of Hamlet and Ophelia’s Spring, was laid out.
Many artists stayed at the hotel among them Herman Bang (Danish author), who was a guest in 1880, where he wrote parts of his debut novel “Håbløse Slægter”. In 1905 he wrote in the hotel diary: “Dearest to me in the world Paris, Prague and Marienlyst” – no comparisons by the way.
Herman Bang and Marienlyst
Bang visited Marienlyst throughout his adult life and took part in the social life there. He participated in bazaars and held lectures, which also relieved the eternal lack of money. The then manager Anders Jensen has in an interview with a local paper depicted Bang´s close relationship to the place:
"En af de første og en af de mest interesserede gæster var Herman Bang. Han kom inden vi fik lukket op om sommeren. Han var næsten med til at tælle dækketøjet, så ivrig var han, og det er ham der har æren af det smukke palmearrangement i forhallen. Han boede de første år oppe i tårnet, senere flyttede han ned i en villa i Nationernes Alle, og der holdt han små dameselskaber om aftenen. Næste dag kom han for at fortælle os, hvad hver dame havde haft på. Han var så glad når de havde pyntet sig. Om aftenen satte han sig tit på kontoret for at spise sit smørrebrød, og der drøftede han praktiske forhold med min kone, de to var så gode venner.”
Herman Bang visited Marienlyst as late as 1905 and once wrote in the hotel´s diary: "Dearest to me in the world is Paris, Prague and Marienlyst". Herman Bang also participated in the debate on the development of the holiday areas, as when he in an article in the newspaper “København” in 1904 vehemently opposed the plans for the building of a railway through the scenic area.
Romantic Staging
Herman Bang was a modern man, who cherished the romantic air and gardens of Marienlyst, where you are able to visit Ophelia´s Spring and the grave of Hamlet. The worshipping of nature gradually became a timetabled and ritualized matter in the lifestyle of the bourgeois. The commercial side of it played a more undisguised part. Romanticism became pure staging and form, which was evident in the late-rmantic building style, which characterizes the new Marienlyst.
Nationernes Allé | 
Modern Forms |
Tycho Brahe
| | Tycho Brahe lived worked in Ven for 21 years (1576-97). He performed astronomical and meteorological experiments there, which he carefully noted, he performed chemical experiments, grew plants, made astronomical tools, drew maps, wrote poems and much more. With his versatility Tycho Brahe was a typical example of a renaissance man. |
Tycho Brahe - a Renaissance Man
In the year 1634, when a French messenger, Charles Ogier, after having visited Elsinore, left the town and travelled south towards Copenhagen, he saw the island Ven and this made him think of the world famous astronomer Tycho Brahe.
It is doubtful if you can perceive the almost square shape of Ven from the coast of Zealand, but it is no coincidence that Ogier noticed this. The symmetrical, well ordered and continuous appeals to the renaissance man, the scientist Tycho Brahe, who Danish standards is the best example of a universal genius in the spirit of the renaissance.
Map of Ven |
Childhood
Tycho Brahe was born a nobleman and it was therefore expected of him that he would make a career for himself as a landowner, warrior and perhaps member of parliament, as so many other in his family. Tycho had, however, a somewhat ambivalent relationship to his noble colleagues.
Tycho Brahe was born December 14th 1546 in the estate Knutstorp in Scania, but was literally abducted and raised with his childless uncle Jörgen Brahe in Tosterup in southeastern Scania. This was not uncommon within the aristocracy, as kin was more important that your own family. The Brahe family is portrayed in Kågeröd church, which was the patronage church of Knutstorp. The plaque is from 1613, after the death of Tycho Brahe. Tycho (the scholar) sits next to his father and after him you see the brothers, Sten, Axel, Jörgen and Knut. Next to the mother sit the sisters Lisbeth, Margareta, Kristina and finally Sophie Brahe, who was very close to Tycho.
Tycho Brahe | 
Knutstorp | 
Tosterup | 
Brahefamiljens epitafium |
Studies
At the age of six Tycho started school, which was not uncommon among the aristocracy. Uncommon was however the interests, which he developed. At the age of twelve he entered the University of Copenhagen, which at the same was open and marked by the renaissance humanist currents of the time.
We know, form his book collection, that he in this period was interested in astronomy. In his study travels in the beginning of the 1560´s he started, under cover of law studies, to practise this science. As travel companion Tycho had the commoner Anders Sørensen Vedel, who also was an important renaissance figure. He collected and published old Danish folksongs.
Anders Sørensen Vedel |
Astronomi
Nova Stella and the New Picture of the Universe
Tycho studied abroad and did not return to Denmark until the end of 1570. He spent his time with his uncle Sten Bille, who was very much interested in chemical and mechanical experiments.
In November 1572 Tycho Brahe observed in Herrevadskloster what he thought was a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. Strongly encouraged, but against his will, he published a book on the new star in 1573. It was controversial for a nobleman to engage in such matters and the book is prefaced with a number of arguments pro and against a publication.
The book, which was printed in a few copies in Copenhagen was written in Latin and contained apart from the thesis on the new star, an astrological and meteorological almanac for the year 1573, a thesis on a future lunar eclipse and finally a poem dedicated to the god Urania.
This may seem as a strange concoction, but in Tycho Brahe´s mind there was a connection between the different parts.
Nova Stella | 
Tycho Brahe´s picture of the world | 
Picture of the world |
The Importance of the Empirical Knowledge
Perhaps Tycho Brahe did not realize the importance of his observations. The leading astronomic perception was that the universe had been created by chance and that there had been no changes without God´s direct participation. Thus they perceived the universe af static. Therefore it was sensational that Tycho Brahe had discovered a change in the firmament and this discovery led to the conception of a dynamic universe. Via later publications he contributed to such a conception. The great importance of Tycho Brahe was his exact empirical observations. Experience had greater importance and the sense of a static cosmos retired.
Tycho Brahe showed that the universe is much greater than hitherto assumed and that it developed and changed continuously. However, he could not accept Kopernikus´ new picture of the universe with the sun and not the earth as the centre of the universe.
Tycho Brahe´s picture of the world | 
Obeservationsscene | 
Sextant | 
Notes |
Stjärneborg
It was important that the instruments were completely stable, which was difficult in a buidliing. This is why Tycho Brahne built Stjärneborg, where the instruments were placed on the ground or even underground. This made the foundation so stable that technical errors were almost eliminated.
Stjärneborg | 
The layout of Stjerneborg | 
Venter på tekst |
The Comet
When Tycho Brahe a few years later in Ven in 1577, had studied a comet, he wrote down his observations in the small publication ”Om kometen”, which became another example that you could draw empirical conclusions.
The Astrologer
Tycho Brahe mixed empirical observations with astrological predictions. His astrological predictions he commented thus:
”... even if it is hidden for everybody to know the right reasons for future things, you can however, from the old experienced astrologers´ observations and knowledge, get some indications of things that these miracles in the sky and do and this can be done without any superstition at all.
Tycho Brahe demonstrated his dissociation of superstition knowing well that the reputation and position of astrology was much debated, not least in the church and among the thinkers of the renaissance. But astrology still had a certain official status. The royal power demanded that Tycho Brahe make predictions and he drew up the horoscope of the crown prince.
The starting point in astrology was the fundamental observations about the influence of the planets, for instance that the sun provided heat and light and that the moon changed the level of the sea. Furthermore they saw that the alternation between summer and winter was dependant on the position of the planets. It is not strange that they attributed importance to the position of the planets. Although Tycho Brahe had doubts about superstition he attributed astrology an certain importance, an importance he later south to limit.
Horoscope |
The Creator
He even attributed the belief in God importance, but approached the idea that God was the initiator of the system, but he did not intervene in the course of history and could not be influenced by prayers or rites, i.e. a deistic perception.
Recognition
Tycho Brahe in time won great recognition and from 1574 he lectured at the University in Copenhagen, which was notable for an aristocrat. He was even offered the position as rector of the university, but refused. The offer still testified to the recognition, which was offered him, also on the part of the royal power.
Uraniborg in Ven
The renaissance prince Frederik II saw Tycho´s greatness and offered his support. February 18th 1567 he was awarded a yearly sum of 500 daler, a very large governmental support. The king had, during his inspections in the building site of Kronborg, come to think of the island Ven as a suitable place for Tychos activities. Tycho was offered the island on favourable terms, if it could prevent him from leaving Denmark. Tycho Brahe accepted.
A Symbolic Castle
The central part of the ground plan was made up of a square, which measured 60 feet, approximately 15,5 metres on every side. This square was divided by perpendicular corridors, which formed four smaller square rooms. The corridors also tied the central part with symmetrical extensions in the north and south and with symmetrical entrance portals in east and west.
The building consisted of two storeys, attic and basement. On the outside there were balconies, which were used for astronomical observations. The basement functioned as a chemical laboratory.
Astronomy and chemistry/medicine was the sciences he was to engage in and two statuette niches marked this over the entrance portals. Two short Latin inscriptions connected these allegorical works of art: Despiciendo suspicio och Suspiciendo despicio, which roughly means, ”When I look down, I look up” and ”When I look up, I look down”. The first maxim refers to the chemical experiments and the other undoubtedly on the astronomical observations. The deeper meaning is that chemistry and astronomy are connected.
Uranienborg | 
Ground plan |
Uraniborg - a View of Life
Uranienborg was not only Tycho Brahe´s home and workplace, but it also expressed architecturally and in other ways, the philosophy and the view of life, which characterized Tycho Brahe. A belief in research and the mapping of reality was to make us understand the cosmological connections.
A Renaissance Garden
The garden was, just like the castle, very symmetrical lay out. They also considered the practical use of a garden and planted fruit trees and sowed vegetables and herbs, which could be used in medical recipes.
We know that Tycho as well as his learned sister Sophie Brahe, who lived with him for long periods of time, devoted themselves to the manufacturing of medicinal preparations, in fact to such an extent, that the pharmacies in Copenhagen complained about the competition. It is very likely that Sophie Brahe participated in the lay out and the care taking of the garden, although there are no evidence of this.
The Garden | 
Ground plan |
Tycho Brahe leaves Ven
Tycho Brahe stayed in Ven for 21 years until 1597, when felt forced to leave Denmark. It is said that he had fallen out with the inhabitants in Ven, that he neglected his duties and that the new king Christian IV did not support him like Frederik II had done.
The circumstances surrounding Tycho Brahe´s fall are still unclear and much debated. Form Rostock Tycho Brhae wrote the kin in 1597 that he had not gone into exile and emphasized his loyalty. The king reproached him for having left without permission and pointed out several unsolved problems. He wrote of the peasants in Ven: ”There have been complaints about you from our poor subjects in Ven”. And of Tycho´s negligence of the church in Ven: ”...as the word of the baptism have been neglected with your knowledge for a long time against the use of the realm that is notorious for anybody”.
That Tycho Brahe did not take care of his estate obligations is probably correct, but one may wonder why the controversy with the peasants was brought up in a time, where it was the right of any lord of the manor to exploit his subjects and when the plight of the peasants was increased significantly.
The Exorcism
If it is true that they had omitted certain parts of the baptismal rite in Tycho Brahe´s time in Ven that could be a serious matter. The baptismal rites and especially the devil incantation, which was part of it, was one of the theological disputes of the time. Exorcism, a Catholic ritual, was still present in the Lutheranian church, but many did not like it and wanted to get rid of it. This was the view of the supporters of the Calvinistic reformation.
The conflict about the exorcism broke out seriously, when the priest Iver Bertelsen in Møn took out the incantation from the rite and was put on trial in 1567. Iver Bertelsen spent 3 year in prison, before Frederik II pardoned him. In 1588, during the regency of Christian IV a new case cropped up, when the priest at the Holy Spirit Church in Copenhagen, Jon Jacob Venusin, at a christening omitted the Devil incantation. Three weeks after this they issued in the king´s name and with threats of punishment a ban on ”resuscitating undue disputes”. Venusin, who came from Ven, where his father had been the vicar, was the brother-in-law of Tycho Brahe´s son-in-law.
Complaints
It was around this time that the king began to attack Tycho Brahe. Firstly the accusations were directed against the vicar in Ven for not having punished Tycho Brahe of his lack of Communion and his immoral behaviour. The allusion was Tycho Brahe´s life together with a non-aristocrat, something which was not illegal in itself. Last, but not least the priest was accused of having omitted the Devil incantation on the request of Tycho Brahe. The priest lost his job and the next time around the accusations were directed against Tycho Brahe himself.
Another complaint against Tycho Brahe was that he had produced medicine without the permission of the church.
Several Reasons
It was not only the dissatisfaction of the peasants and the dissatisfaction with the neglecting of his duties, which caused him to move. The suspicion of the church about his astrology, his medicine and not least his liberal religious views in a time of strict Lutheranian orthodoxy, may have been decisive.
Tycho Brahe´s correspondence with the king was not published until the king´s death in 1648. In 1597 Tycho wrote a poem of his break with Denmark. Here is a section of the poem:
”Denmark, what have I have for you to cast me off so cruelly?
How can you, my native land, treat me as an enemy?
I have lifted your name, it is mentioned far and wide with honour
how can you be angry that my work has encircled you with roses?
Tell me, which of your children have given you better things to own?
Are you angry that high in the vaulted arch, native country?
Your name I wrote in twinkling stars
Why thrust me aside? Sometime you will remember me.
In days to come my worth, my work will be understood,
By children of a later generation, everything that I gave for you to build”
Tycho Brahe died in Prague in 1601.
A Renaissance Woman
Charles Ogier relates that he met Tycho Brahe´s sister Sofie in connection with his leaving Elsinore in 1634. She was then almost 80 years old, had survived her famous brother with almost 30 years, and had lived in Elsinore sine 1626.
Sofie was, like her brother, gifted in many ways and she had many interests. She spent a lot of time doing genealogical studies of Danish noble families, but she was also very interested in gardening, medicine, astrology and astronomy and she was at her brother´s side during the years in Ven.
Sofie Brahe also made medicine and in 1625 she sent a recipe for plague elixir to Christian IV.
Epitaph in Kågeröd | 
Sophie Brahe | 
Memorial Tablet |
The Garden Art of Sophie Brahe
Unfortunately we don´t know much about the garden art of Sophie Brahe, which is praised by her brother. She has probably helped her brother in the garden in Hven, but she also grew her own garden in the estate Eriksholm in Scania and later in Elsinore, where she owned a town house with adjoining land on the outskirts of town and close to Kronborg.
A letter to the Swedish nobleman Johan Sparre from September 14th 1629 testifies to her knowledge. The first part is about genealogy - she had borrowed and corrected some genealogical tables. Then she writes about bulbs and how to handle them.
Emperor´s Crown | 
Renaissance Garden | 
Garden Section |
The Idea of the Renaissance Garden
The garden layout of Uranienborg was, as seen in contemporary engravings, a square layout marked by symmetry down to the last detail. The outer shape was probably fruit trees surrounding the inner part with the geometrical beds, which contained utility as well as ornamental plants. The transition between the two parts is marked with four identical summerhouses.
Uranienborg´s garden is special with the consistent symmetry, which probably refers to the area´s scientific nature. In this sense the garden fully lives up to the idea of the Renaissance garden. It must divert, but also challenge and stimulate the curiosity of the visitor and incite intellectual and spiritual absorption. The pleasant is combined with useful, and the planting testifies to this. (Picturesr: Villa d ´ Este and Leiden).
Florence 1545 | 
Norton´s Botanical Work 1597 | 
Angelica 1597 | 
Lavender 1597 | 
Tulip 1561 |
Råå
Alliances
After the death of Karl X Gustav Sweden was governed by regency headed by Gabriel De La Gardie. After the peace in Copenhagen the foreign policy was a matter of avoiding war and the guarding of the Danish border. This was to be done by a balance policy between the great power blocks of Europe.
Opposite the big power France stood a union between Austria, Holland, Spain and Brandenburg. In 1672 Sweden approached France and they formed an alliance. When the European Great War began Denmark joined Sweden´s enemies and when France succeeded in making Sweden go to war against Brandenburg, Denmark and Sweden ended up on different sides in the European conflict. When the Swedes were defeated in Swedish Pomerania, the Danes attacked Sweden seeing the opportunity to revenge the disastrous defeat in 1658.
Danish Attack
The Dutch and Danish fleet defeated the Swedish fleet south of Øland in the summer of 1676. The Swedish battle ship Kronan, at the time the biggest warship in Europe, was sunk.
On the command of the Danish king Christian V around 15.000 men were landed in Rå south of Helsingborg and subsequently the citizens of Helsingborg pledged allegiance to the Danish king. Furthermore a Danish mayor was elected.
The Danish Invasion Fleet 1676 | 
The Naval Battle of Øland | 
The Invasion Fleet on its Way to Råå | 
The Capture of Helsingborg |
A Bloody War
The Scanian was a cruel and bloody war, which mainly took place on Scanian soil. The Danes drove the Swedes back and gained control over all of Scania except Malmo. Many Scanians joined the Danes. Violent battles were fought at Christiansstad, Halmstad, Lund and Landskrona.
The Battle of Lund was the bloodiest battle ever fought between Denmark and Sweden. The young king Karl XI led the Swedish troops. The battle turned the war in favour of the Swedes and they were able to drive the Danish troops back. At the end the Danes only held Landskrona and Helsingborg, but they were forced to face the fact that the situation was hopeless. Thousands of refugees crossed the Sound to Denmark.
The Citadel in Landskrona | 
The Capture of Landskrona | 
The Capture of Landskrona | 
Landskrona Surrenders to Christian V | 
The Siege of Christiansstad 1676 |
The Capture of Christiansstad | 
The Battle of Lund 1676 | 
The Battle of Lund 1676 | 
The Battle of Lund 1676 | 
The Battle of Lund 1676 |
Karl XI | 
The Battle of Malmo 1677 | 
The Battle of Landskrona 1677 | 
The Battle of Tirups Hed, Landskrona | 
The Battle in Køge Bay 1677 |
Anti-Swedish Alliance
The young Swedish king Karl XII, who succeeded his father Carl XI, was opposed by an alliance of states, which demanded revenge after Sweden´s conquests in the 17th century. Denmark, Russia and Saxony (including Poland) were in this alliance. However at this time Sweden were well prepared. Carl XI, who had also reformed the defence, which at this time consisted of 65.000 men and 38 war ships, had built a new naval port in Karlskrona. Finally the new border with Denmark at the Sound had been fortified extensively.
In the year 1700 a Swedish army under the command of Carl XII was transported from Helsingborg and Landskrona to Humlebæk in Zealand. Copenhagen was threatened and Denmark was forced to make a separate peace.
Carl XII continued his expedition towards Russia and Poland and advanced in eastern Europe, but when the Swedish fortune of war changed in the Battle of Poltava (1709) Denmark declared war on Sweden.
Karl 12. | 
The Swedes´ Landing in Humlebæk | 
The Bombardment of Copenhagen |
The Danish Helsingborg
The Danish main forces, which included 14.000 men landed in Råå in November 1709. Helsingborg defended itself with a garrison of 360 men and a Swedish unit of 1500 men were in the area around Rå. They could not defend the town and retreated.
Frederik IV took up headquarters in alderman Schlyter´s farm in the central Helsingborg and its citizens pledged allegiance to the Danish king. In Helsingborg Danish church services were introduced a Danish almanac according to the Gregorian calendar. This involved a difference of ten days.
Herman Schlyter´s House |
Magnus Stenbock in Helsingborg
The Swedish king was far away, so Magnus Stenbock, who was Scania´s general governor, organized the Swedish defence. He gathered a large army in Småland, as the Danes had entered Sweden all the way up to Karlshamn in Blekinge. Stenbock succeeded in gathering 16.000 men, who went into Scania in the end of January 1710. The Danes retreated towards Helsingborg and took up position north of town under the command of major general Rantzau.
February 28th 1710 the two armies clashed in the battle of Ringstorp outside Helsingborg, and it ended in a crushing Danish defeat, which Stenbock´s courier, Henrik Hammarberg reported to Stockholm.
Stenbock, Magnus | 
Message of the Victory of Magnus Stenbock | 
Memorial Stone for the Battle of Helsingborg | 
Fortification of the Swedish Coast | 
Helsingborg 2010 |
Ramlösa
| | Ramlösa Spa was opened as early as 1707, but had its heyday in the 19th century. The healing water and the royal interests attracted many visitors to the spa hotel and by the end of the 19th century this ostentatious main building in modern style was erected. |
The Holy Water
On the Scanian side Ramlösa became a centre for well water drinking and baths. At first it was the drinking of the water that was Ramlösa´s niche. Water has always been considered as purifying and life giving. Of course, this is not that curious as water is nature’s lifeblood. In most religions water is considered holy and in the Christian and Islamic religions washing and rinsing are in the nature of holy ceremonies. But is has also been common that special springs and currents have been considered especially effective. In the Antiquity the explanation was that some springs had divine powers and their water was thus deemed holy. In Pergamon, for instance, there was the holy well at the Asklepios Temple. (As Asklepios was the god for medicine the water at his temple was considered medically effective.)
Christianity took over this thought and various saints were associated with different springs, where the water was drunk, and the performing of sacrifices in the form of coins in holy wells were also found. Thus the drinking of well water and baths in holy springs very early had a religious association. After the Reformation this spring cult was opposed by the Protestant priests, but in the 17th century the effect of these holy springs became interesting from a scientific point of view.
In Sweden Urban Hjärne carried out water analyses and many doctors associated certain wells and springs with curative qualities. Thus the spring cult had a renaissance in the 18th century. But these types of water were not only effective internally. Washing and bathing were curative and therefore swimming baths were established in the health resorts. In the 1700 and 1800´s many travelled to Spa, Aachen, Schwalbach and other health resorts to drink the well water and bathe for health reasons. When some doctors also began to advertise the salty spas´ curative qualities, the spas situated by the sea had a particular upturn.
Ramlosa – How It Started
As early as 1707 Ramlösa spa was opened. For some decades it had been said that the spring in Ramlösa gave health and power and the doctor Johan Jacob Döbelius had emphasized the spring’s curative effects. The iron carbonate in the Ramlösa water allegedly cured rheumatism, kidney gravel, sciatica, heart diseases, etc. As early as the 18th century the establishment visited Ramlösa, but it was during the first half of the 19th century that Ramlösa spa had its heyday.
It became especially important when doctor of medicine at the university in Lund and one of the greatest medical authorities in Sweden, Eberhard Munck of Rosenschiöld became a spa doctor. Thus Ramlösa had a special position as the health spa had a scientific attachment. Rosenschiöld also advertised the salty baths and Ramlösa therefore became a spa with access to both well drinking and sea baths.
The ferruginous water | 
Johan Jacob Döbelius | 
Munck af Rosenschiöld |
Royal Guests
Ramlösa Spa was surrounded by royal glory. King Gustav IV Adolf visited the well often during his three months stay in Helsingborg in 1807. The crown prince Karl August spent several summers there and he invested money on the hospital building in the park.
The hospital activities gradually became quite extensive and at the turn of the century it was possible to receive 160 patients. The frequently ill son, Oscar (Oscar I) visited Ramlösa several times during the 1810´s and 1820´s, which was to a great part due to the fact that the spa doctor was Munck of Rosenschiöld.
Oscar´s mother, Queen Desideria, spent several summers in Ramlösa and thrived there. But she often complained about the conditions in her new homeland. Perhaps she missed her former fiancé, Napoleon Bonaparte and the glory that surrounded him?
The presence of the royal family attracted visitors from the higher classes and Ramlösa became an upper-class resort and a high society life developed with the royal family at the centre. In time many noble families had their own houses built in the park, which eventually was dominated by wood architecture in the style of neo-romanticism and neo-classicism.
Desideria | 
The hospital |
The Foundation Grows
A horse drawn railway – the first in Sweden – was built down to the sea in 1877 so that the guests could comfortably be transported to the water. There were frequent time tabled tours – in the morning every 15 minutes and in the afternoon every 30 minutes. A bathing hut was built at the Sound and at the beach a whole place of entertainment sprouted up complete with a shooting range, a restaurant and a music pavilion. Thus Ramlösa raised its profile as a bathing resort and this was even clearer with the bathing facilities that were built close to the spa hotel.
At the end of the 19th century Ramlösa Spa changed and became more and more a recreational area offering relaxation and entertainment. It was at this time the alkaline spring was discovered, which is the content of Ramlösa mineral water, as we know it.
The Spa Hotel | 
The horse tramline | 
The bathing ground | 
A neo-classicist building |
The Radical
In July 1858 a big Scandinavistic meeting was held in Ramlösa and thousands of Danish participants were greeted with kettledrums and trumpets in the harbour of Helsingborg. The city had been decorated with flags and there was an intense festive atmosphere was prevalent. The meeting was not only a Scandinavistic manifestation, but developed into a strange history of ideas. Almost 12000 Scandinavists had gathered in Ramlösa, where Ploug, Ahnfelt and all the other Scandinavism-enthusiasts held speeches. Fredrik Borg mounted the platform and presented his view of women, which made the listeners gape. He explained that he thought it unfair to see women as “mother, wife, mistress”, while men at the same time not only was seen as “father, husband and lover”, but also as a fellow citizen and he demanded civil rights for women and the same rights to education and working life.
This was an equal rights policy, which was way ahead of its time, and Borg was the first to demand women suffrage in parliament in 1884, when he was active as a member. But his proposal was not met with sympathy for his convictions and it took 35 years before the parliament introduced women suffrage. The speech in Ramlösa was way ahead of its time and it was brilliant. Borg struck a note, which was to become a recurrent theme in Öresundsposten. The speech was printed in the paper July 16th 1858 and some of it is reported here as a source, but we cannot help quoting the ending here: “ Put her in the sunlight, in whose warmth her loving nature can bloom and yield fruits for society”.
Refugee Pressure on Helsingborg
Helsingborg received in the course of the hectic month of October 1943 more than 4000 Jewish refugees and an enormous organising was required. During the first refugee accumulation in the begining of October the Grand Hotel was filled and several other hotels. It was then necessary to find a refugee camp, which could be used for some time, before the refugees were taken further up the country in order to make room for others.
Ramlösa Spa, which was hibernating, was opened and functioned as a receiving central for all those, who were landed in Landskrona and north. The Ramlösa camp had a permanent doctors´ station, headed by a Danish doctor. As the flow of refugees were steady it was important that they could taken to new camps further up in the country and such an organisation quickly started to function.
Medical Examination | 
Joint Cooking in Ramlösa |
| |
 | Small | Large | Helsingborg – Accommodation in Ramlösa Spa |
Norway´s Freedom Celebrated Too in Ramlösa
With the joy of Denmark´s liberation people now awaited the liberation of Norway. When it came, happiness was complete, not least in the Ramlösa camp, where many Norwegians had been accommodated. In the camp they also showed their gratitude to the policemen in Helsingborg, who had supported the refugees all the way.
This time too, a peace service was held in the Gustav Adolf Church with the dynamic and popular vicar Gunnar Stenberg.
Celebration in Ramlösa |
Pålsjö Beach and Pålsjö Cementary
| | Pålsjö was in the end of the 19th century a popular seaside resort.
A sharp contrast to this can be seen in Pålsjö Churchyard, where Allied victims of the Swedish policy of neutrality during the Second World War and German soldiers are buried side by side. |
Seaside Life in the Year of 1900
With the summer holiday life on the coasts of the Sound region came the seaside life, which at first wasn´t allowed directly from the beach, but only from bathing jetties and cubicles, or the gender divided public baths, which was source of a characteristic architecture along the coast.
With the parcellation and the building of summer houses, the holiday life became more formalized. It became an object for investments for the middle classes and creates another dimension in the life of the family. In many ways other, more gentle rules of conduct became prevalent.
Emma Gad |
Ålsgårde 1880 |
Beach Life |
Snekkersten´s Cold Bath Houses |
Snekkersten´s Cold Bath Houses |
The Coastal Road Snekkersten |
Helgoland |
The Cold bath House in Landskrona |
Pålsjöbaden in Helsingborg |
Snekkersten Public Bath |
Seaside Life in Hornbæk |
Hornbæk Beach |
Borupgaards Bathing Hut |
Resistance and Terror in Sweden
The neutral Sweden defended its neutrality against the Allies and the Germans. In Pålsjö Cemetery’s gravestones the tragic results can be read. Here you can also read the epitaphs of a number of soldiers, who died in connection with the shipwreck of a war ship and were washed ashore in the Scanian coast.
War Graves – Pålsjö Cemetery Relates
In the northern part of Helsingborg is Palsjö Cemetery. At the entrance of the cemetery there are to signs. One says that here is “Commonwealth war graves”, and the other informs of “Deutsche kriegsgräben”.
These two burial plots relate how northwestern Scania experienced the Second World War and how foreign young soldiers found their last resting place here – far from their home.
Of the 113 pilots from the British Commonwealth, who died in the Second World War in Swedish territory, 47 are buried in Pålsjö Cemetery. A few metres next to them lay German soldiers, who died in the same was in this area. They have found their final resting place not far form their enemies from the West Alliance, but also next to fellow countrymen, who died during the First World War. 93 German soldiers lay here.
The Allies
The “Commonwealth war graves” consists of 47 meticulously placed white marble stones and a big sword-decorated cross in the one end. The gravestones tell that it is mainly young soldiers in their twenties. Some death dates appears more often than others and nobody died alone.
July 4th 1942
On the night of July 4th 1942 Bruce Morgan and J. Samson died with four other fellow soldiers. The next morning Helsingborg Dagblad said:
“British plane crashed in Lerberget.
Was hit by the air defence on the Danish side over Hornbæk."
Helsingborg experienced the reality of war at 1 one o´clock last night – perhaps closer than ever. Two aeroplanes, which in all probability were English, flew in a southern direction along the Sound and back, when the Danish air defence fired at them with an unheard of intensity.
One of the planes crashed approximately 200 metres from Lerberget. One of the seven-crew members, a Canadian was saved and taken to Helsingborg´s Hospital. In spite of an intensive search there have been no signs of the other six.”
The two aeroplanes had been on a mission to drop mines in the Sound, and in the course of the next couple of days five mines were rendered harmless by minesweepers. They were on their way home from the assignment, when one the planes were shot down. Of the seven-crew members only the Canadian, who flew the plane, survived. The others were buried here in Pålsjö Cemetery July 17th 1942 and several thousands of Helsingborg´s population slowed their sympathy.
Flowers arrived from high-ranking military persons and institutions, but also from ordinary people. The inhabitants in the area around Lerberget had sent a flower tribute and in Helsingborg they had collected money for a gift for the surviving hospitalised Canadian.
The police in Helsingborg sent the death message to Canada with newspaper clippings from the funeral. After some time an answer came from Bruce Morgan´s stepparents. The answer is quoted in Göte Friberg´s book ”Stormcentrum Øresund”.
”For the last twenty years we have taken care of him like he was our own son. The message you sent that his body has been taken out of the sea and that he has been buried with military distinction, have brought us happiness. These young men have given their life for us, and the freedom of the world, and although our hearts are crying, we are proud of them. The beautiful thoughts and the loving work, which the inhabitants of your town have expressed towards these heroes, was completely overwhelming and we are very grateful to you all.”
Bruce Morgan | 
J. Samson |
August 30th 1944
J. Kennedy died, 21 years old on August 30th 1944 with twenty others. The next day Helsingborg Dagblad said:
According to the available reports seven aeroplanes have crashed during overflights Tuesday night in the areas around the following towns: Knäred, Vittsjö, Örkelljunga, Båstad, Ljungby and Svensköp, and in the waters outside Vejbystrand. Five of the planes were of British nationality. Swedish air defence before the crash according to a close investigation hit some of the planes.
A large number of English aeroplanes flew back after a planned bombing expedition against Königsberg (Kaliningrad). They had been discovered by a German fighter and forced to withdraw. Over the Sound Danish and Swedish sides fired at them. Six planes crashed in northwestern Scania, among other places in Båstead and Skälderviken. Two planes that crashed in Svensköp in Scania and in Agunnaryd in southern Småland had been under fire from the Swedish air defence.
21 pilots were buried on September 7th ceremoniously in Pålsjö Cemetery. The Swedish crown princess, who was English, had sent a wreath. On the D.L.D Moon´s gravestone it says:” To the world, he was only one but to us he was all the world.”
The next day they lowered wreaths in the Skälderviken, where one of the planes had crashed.
J. Kennedy |
D. L. D. Moon |
February 8th 1945
Six young boys died on February 8th 1945, among them P.L Kirkpatrick, 20 years old from Australia. Helsingborg Dagblad said the following on February 9th:
“Aeroplane Crashed in Brohult, completely demolished.
Cattleman´s house 40 metres from the crash, only one pilot found yesterday."
For the first time a foreign aeroplane has crashed inside the Helsingborg city boundary. This happened yesterday evening around 8 o´clock, when a four-engine British bomber was shot over Helsingborg and crashed at Brohult´s farm.”
There was a lot of activity in the air space in the beginning of February. The Allies carried out massive bombing expeditions against German cities Berlin and Dresden. February 8th a number of allied planes entered Helsingborg´s air space from the north and was fired at by air defences in Sofiero. One of the aircrafts was hit and flew burning over the Tågaborg district and crashed at Brohult´s farm, east of Helsingborg.
In his book “Stormcentrum Öresund” Göte Friberg has testified to the despair, which the men at the anti-aircraft gun felt after the shooting, and Helsingborg municipality made a demand that the minister of defence should change the directives for the shooting of the air defence.
The aircrafts were shot down by the Swedish air defence and at the funeral the memories of the dead were praised by representatives of the Swedish defence and afterwards the families thanked for the marks of honour via Helsingborg Dagblad.
P. L. Kirkpatrick | 
Helsingborg Dagblad February 9th 1945 |
German soldiers
A few metres from “The Commonwealth War Graves” German soldiers are buried. More than 40 of them died on March 1st 1945. Among these Heinz Reck, 26 years old and Horst de Wall, 20 years old. The next day this piece of news dominated Helsingborg Dagblad:
“Horrifying ship´s disaster near Helsingborg.
German war ship with 70 men capsized in the storm.”
A German war ship, a minesweeper was on its way to Aalborg form Copenhagen. The had to turn back because of the storm, but capsized between Viken and Hornbæk and sank outside Vikingestrand in northern Helsingborg. The disaster was this not due to any war action. 42 dead bodies floated ashore along the coast from Landskrona and to the north, most of them just north of Landskrona.
Even these had their last resting place in Pålsjö Cemetary. Many people attended the funeral and the number of people, which had participated in the rescue work, was remarkable. This was not a question of Germans or Englishmen, but a question of life and death.
From the burial report in Helsingborg Dagblad:
“It was a moving moment when seven fishermen from “Gravarna” laid down a wreath and chauffeur Karl O. Hjelm said the last words for the dead and asserted that he and his firends had done what they could to save the their lives during the ill-fated storm night."
German Soldiers | 
German Soldiers | 
Helsingborg Dagblad March 2nd 1945 | 
Helsingborg Dagblad March 10th 1945 |
A Forign Crowd of Peoble
Far from their homes here in Pålsjö Cemetery almost one hundred young men lay buried, one hundred of the many millions, who were sacrificed in the Second World War. Most of the victims of the world war are buried in the same way far from their homes. Göte Friberg, a policeman from Helsingborg gave this precise description of the ceremonies in Pålsjö Cemetary, a description, which probably covers thousands of other funerals during the Second World War:
“No families, no close friend were present, just a collection of correct men with and without uniform and in the background a large, silent, foreign crowd of people.”
Göte Friberg |
Sofiero
| | Even royalty had summer residences. This is Sofiero by the Sound coast north of Helsingborg, which the Swedish royal family bought privately. The Swedish crown prince Oscar, Karl XV´s brother, decided in the 1860´s to build a summer residence to himself and his family just north of Helsingborg. |
In the 1860´s the Swedish crown prince, Oscar, Karl XV´s brother, decided to build a summer residence for himself and his family just north of Helsingborg. One may wonder why he chose Helsingborg. Certainly, the Bernadottes had always had a certain affection for this town ever since Karl Johan went ashore there in 1810. The royal family often visited Helsingborg and Ramlösa and perhaps they felt at home here. Furthermore it is possible that being close to Denmark was tempting during the time of Scandinavism and the idea of a union between the countries could be an opportunity to have a summer castle near Denmark. Or maybe his grandson Gustav VI Adolf was right, when he said that the boat interested Oscar simply was drawn to the sea and boats and that the intensive boat traffic on the Sound was particularly tempting. After some efforts he succeeded in getting the estate, “Skabelycke”, which was named Sofiero after Oscar´s wife, Sofia. One building was constructed, designed by and engineer by the name of Forsell and who had previously designed railway stations. Many feel that this is the reason that Sofiero more looks like a railway station than a royal castle.
When Karl died in 1872, Sofiero became a place fit for royalty and king Oscar II extended the castle, an extension, which was finished in 1876. But it still could not match the Danish counterpart, Fredensborg, but it is to be remembered that it was not a state castle, but en entirely private building. In any case the area was revived until the death of Gustav VI Adolf almost 100 years later, when Sofiero stopped being a royal summer castle.
Among the leisure activities that Oscar II liked the most was the yearly hare hunting on Hven and many inhabitants on Hven still talk about these hunts. But even though Sofiero was a private summer residence, it was also used for official duties. Tsars, royalty, presidents and prime ministers from higher politics visited here. In addition to these state visits they had government meetings here in the summer and Sofiero thus had a more official status than the present royal summer residence in Borgholm on Öland.
Sofiero Castle | 
Oscar and Sofia with the children | 
Gustav Adolf and Margaretha | 
Interior from Sofiero | 
Hare hunting in Hven |
Dunker´s Arts Center
| | Dunker´s Arts Centre in Helsingborg is a willed present form one of Sweden´s richest families. The fortune was made via the rubber cartel Tretorn, which had plants in Helsingborg as well as Elsinore.
The arts centre is designed by the Danish architect, Kim Utzon. |
The Galosh King
Dunker, the family that founded and developed the Tretorn-empire, came to Helsingborg from Denmark.
A new method to process raw rubber into a material, which was soft, waterproof and durable, gave opportunities for exploiting rubber industrially, for instance to produce galoshes, rubber shoes and other kinds of modern goods of quality.
“The rubber age” had arrived to the Sound. It turned out to be a fortune for the Dunker family, but later on also for the cultural life of the region.
The Rubber Age
Rubber had been used for a long time and it worked very well – as india rubber. The American Charles Goodyear discovered a method, which opened up for completely different possibilities for the utilization of rubber in 1839. He had succeeded in processing raw rubber into a material, which was soft, waterproof and durable. The method was called retreading , and was, technically the heating of a mixture of caoutchouc and sulphur.
This method gave completely new opportunities for exploiting rubber industrially.
One idea, among many others, was to produce a protecting shoe, which was to worn on elegant shoes when it rained. The galosh, the French name for overshoes, was born. The winters by the Sound would now be bearable with the new wind- and waterproof shoes. Galoshes became extremely popular and were manufactured all over the world. Sweden imported the new idea from Russia.
Johan Dunker – the Beginning
In Helsingborg there was a harbour master called Johan Dunker. He was originally from Schlesvig-Holstein. The Dunker family lived in Esbjerg, when the son, Henry, was born in 1870. Johan, who was active in the Helsingborg economic life, understood that the demand for rubber would increase. With the optimism for the future of the age in mind, he built a rubber factory in the expanding Helsingborg. With the support of Petter Olsson, among others, he founded Helsingborgs Rubber Factory Inc. in 1891.
Johan Dunker |
Henry Dunker – a Man for Development
Johan Dunker´s son, Henry, went to Russia to find know how for his new factory. In St. Petersborg he did not have much luck, but in Riga, which belonged to Russia at the time, he came into contact with a chemist, who was interested in developing the factory in Helsingborg. His name was Julius von Gerkan and he was instrumental, when it came to the quality of the Helsingborg galoshes.
Henry Dunker became a sub-manager in 1984 and after some troubles in the beginning the factory expanded. He worked for his position in relation to other rubber factories. Thus he took over the rubber factory, Velox, in Trelleborg of founded Trelleborg´s rubber factory in 1905, which became a part of Dunker´s expanding empire. One of his ideas was to start his own sales offices, and thus avoid selling via wholesale dealers. In that way he could gain control over a bigger part of the chain from producer to consumer.
Sales offices opened between 1910-20 in all parts of Sweden, but also abroad, for instance in Copenhagen in 1909, Berlin in 913 and Vienna in 1913. Not only the company expanded but also the range of goods. What began with galoshes and other kinds of rubber shoes, now continued with balls, bathing caps and tyres. Henry Dunker realized the value of specialisation and moved the production of tyres to Trelleborg.
Henry Dunker |
Cartel and Group
In order to obtain a better competition situation abroad and avoid competition in the home market, he established a cartel in 1912. The result was that the prices could be raised in Sweden and lowered abroad, which resulted in a higher profit.
During the depression of the 30´s many states wanted to protect their own production by way of customs duties and import prohibition. Henry Dunker built factories in Hamburg and Elsinore and could maintain production and sale in Germany and Denmark. The factory in Elsinore, which was founded in 1935, grew steadily and at the end of the 50´s it was the second largest place of work in the town with more than one thousand employees. The old “Helsingborg Rubber Factory Inc.” had grown into a multinational group and the company had changed its name into Tretorn Inc., in order to get rid of the provincial ring of the old name.
Tretorn Factory in Elsinore | 
Tretorn poster from 1939 |
The Richest Man in Sweden
The demand for rubber products was enormous. From being used only as india rubber, the range of goods grew via rubber shoes to tyres, bicycle tyres, rain clothes, balls, gym shoes, rubber bands, weather strips - the list was almost endless, and the 30´s and 40´s were rightly called “the rubber age”. The fruits of this success made “the galosh king”, Henry Dunker to the richest man in Sweden.
Henry Dunker´s villa, ”Hevea”, which was built in the 20´s in northern Helsingborg, gives an insight to the environment of the well-to-do.
Villa Hevea | 
The Working Class District | 
Shower Room |
Dunker, the Employer
The management skills of Henry Dunker can be described as tough on the tough, but somewhat softer on the weak. The higher the position in the company, the more Dunker demanded. He was no friend of unions and strikes either, and naturally he did not engage himself in big business in order to play the part of the benefactor.
When he established a private kindergarten in 1911, it was in order to employ more women. In the 1930´s most of the employees in the company in Helsingborg were women.
The Unions | 
The Nursery |
The Municipality as Heir
From time to time Dunker displayed good will and released somebody from debt, but that was only his own workers. The staff in his villa, Hevea, liked him.
Dunker´s fortune was, at his death, willed to the Helsingborg municipality and his villa was made into a nursing home. In that way his money was given back to the people in town. Without these means it would not have been possible for Helsingborg to offer its citizens the theatre and arts centre, which now adorns the town. However, one should not forget the thousands of people who worked and slaved in dirty and evil-smelling factories.
Dunker´s Arts Centre |
The Church of S:t Mary
| | The Church of St. Mary in Helsingborg has a long history. In its foundation it was finished in 1410. The church is, like its counterpart in Elsinore, built in Gothic style and contains a number of art treasures – many from the Middle Ages. |
The Church of St. Mary
The late medieval church is situated right in the centre of the old Helsingborg. In the Helsingborg of the 21th century it is not a dominating part of the town picture and can hardly be seen from the sea. It is actually a little difficult to see, but when you are standing in front of it, you have to admire the beauty of the thorough Gothic gilding style. If you go inside a great deal of Helsingborg´s late medieval church culture´s interior is preserved.
The Eastern Facade of the Church of St. Mary |
Gothic
The St. Mary Church was finished in 1410 after a long building period of about 100 years. It is built as a basilica and is almost a cathedral. The mid aisle is, like the great Gothic cathedrals in Europe, low and has no windows under the vault. The building style is often called half basilica or ”pseudo basilica”. The same characteristics can be seen on the other side of the Sound, where the Mary Church in Elsinore has the same architectural traits.
The Gothic characteristics are prominent, the pointed arched windows and the pointed vaults. This also can be seen in the gable doorsteps of the exterior and the external buttresses, which support the church.
The church replaced an earlier Roman sandstone church from the 12th century. And in comparison to the small houses of the time, it became a striking and dominant building in Helsingborg. There were other churches in town, but only Kärnan and the Nicolai Monastery were able to compete with the dominant St. Mary Church.
The Western Front of the Church of Saint Mary | 
The Buttresses of the St. Mary Church |
The Vault of the Church of Saint Mary | 
Helsingborg in the Year 1400 |
The Art Treasures of the Middle Ages
The font is from the 14th century and cut from Gotland limestone. Originally it was painted and scientific examinations point towards fragments of red and blue oil paint.
The altarpiece is in remarkable good condition. It is painted around the time of the church´s inauguration in the period 1449-1452. Probably by a master from Stralsund. In the centre of the piece the scene with Mary and the newborn Jesus dominates. The motifs around are from the life of Christ as it is described in the New Testament.
The altarpiece, which is designed as some sort of cupboard can be closed at certain periods in the church year. During Lent, for example. Here the viewer must do without the sculptures and contents himself with looking on the motifs from Christ´s last days. One of these scenes shows how Jesus drives the merchants from the temple. An interesting detail here is that the appearance of some of the coins in this motif can be located in Stralsund. One detail which makes it probable that the altarpiece have been made n this town.
The triumph crucifix in Gothic style is from the latest Middle Ages. It is interesting that the foot of the cross says 1753. But it only states the time when the crucifix was repainted/restored. This is further complicated by the fact that the cross itself is of a later date that the crucifix. The originator of the crucifix is unknown, but experts assume that it is made in the southern part of Scandinavia.
The original plaster, which covered the church walls has later been removed. The walls now appear as brick walls. However, there are still remnants of the old plaster behind the altar, where there are still fragments of the old murals. Among them the saints: S:t Magnus and Brandanus. The murals are from the 15th century and are done by the so-called: Helsingborgmester, (Helsingborgmaster), whose somewhat better preserved murals can be seen in Brunnby Church in the Kulla peninsula.
From the Middle Ages are also the so-called piscinan at the bottom in the choir wall.
The Altarpiece of the Church of Saint Mary | 
The closed altar cabinet | 
The merchants are driven from the temple | 
St. Mary´s Church´s Crucifix | 
The Font of the Church of St. Mary |
The Mural of the Church of St. Mary | 
The Picscina of the Church of St. Mary |
A New Day Dawning
The tower was not finished before 1500. I.e. by the beginning of the century which was not only to change the church organisation and dogmatism in the North, but also the Middle Ages as it was later called.
However, the medieval origin of St. Mary Church is still very pronounced. Despite the later modernizations with pulpit, organ and rows of benches. The church is, rightfully so, characterized as an example of what the Middle Ages can display when it comes to stylish architecture, capable constructions and amazing craftsmanship.
Good Deeds
The altarpiece has a double portrait and three pictures above each other on the left side. The portrait shows a noble couple, perhaps the vassal of Helsingborg´s castle, Arild Urup and his wife Thale Thott. Their gold chains can identify them, which symbolize noble wealth and power.
The motif is, like in the dining hall in the Our Lady monastery in Elsinore, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The poor beggar Lazarus will get his reward in Heaven, while the rich man is tormented in Hell.The subtext says:
You Christians, whom God have given enough, consider the poor, who suffer grief, sickness, misery and distress, poverty and hunger for bread, with something in this collection box. Show your faith with good deeds and God in his Heaven will look agreeably upon you.
The old notion that God looks agreeably on good deeds seems to have outlived the reformation.
Nobel couple |
Sickness and Health
Epidemics were well-known since the black death in the middle of the 14th century, but in the latter half of the 16th century Elsinore was struck 13 times. It has been established that more or less local epidemics took place every other year. It was different forms of the plague, but also typhoid fever, cholera and children´s diseases took many lives. The priest and writer in Elsinore, Hans Christensen Sthen, wrote a comfort script after having lost eight children in one of the epidemics.
Tycho Brahe lost in 1576 a two-year-old daughter, after which he put up this plaque in the Mary Church in Helsingborg with this inscription:
Kirstine led, when she went away, her tender dust here.
She, who was once Tycho Brahe´s daughter.
She was just an insignificant inhabitant of this world.
But in that short time, she grew considerably. In spiritual goodness, she exceeded her gender, in good deeds her young age, in eloquence her contemporaries.
This is why nature has taken her back
So that she would not exceed the boundaries of the standards.
But still she lives; she has defeated the resistance of nature.
Instead of the short time, she now owns the period of eternity.
And improved by the Heavenly Good she rejects the Mortal,
as she through Christ have been admitted to Heaven.
Died in the Plague on September 24th
in 1576, lived for 2 years and 11 months, 11 days and 11 hours.
Death
The sooner the more dear
The later the bitterer
To Kirstine my beloved daughter
Lively and well-bred for her age,
Have I, the father, written this.
Tycho Brahe’s Daughter’s Epitaph |
Buxtehude – A Sound Citizen
It is difficult to say how the man in the street experienced Scania´s abrupt transition to Sweden at the peace treaties in 1658 and 1660. In paragraph 9 in the Roskilde peace treaty it was stated that all estates in Scania had the right to maintain their distinctive cultural characteristics and inherited rights, so nothing prevented them from living as they had done before. Furthermore it was difficult to say how much nationality meant for the individual. Sweden as well as Denmark was at this time complex – in reality multinational states, which to some extent demanded some loyalty from their citizens, but hardly a national disposition in the modern sense. That came with Romanticism’s worship of the nation and the people at the end of the 18th century.
The example of the composer Diderich Buxtehude may illuminate this connection. Posterity has not succeeded in establishing where he was born – in Holstein, Elsinore or Helsingborg – in any case he was born in an area, which belonged to the Danish state around 1637. His father, Johannes Buxtehude came from Oldesloe in Holstein – to where he probably had emigrated originally. In 1638 he became an organist at the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In the years 1638-41 the father worked in Helsingborg and here Diderich had some childhood years. In 1642 the father was the organist at the St. Olai Church in Elsinore, where he was active until around 1670. Diderich Buxtehude thus spent his childhood and youth in Helsingborg and Elsinore.
Music with Class
During the first half of the 17th century the musical scene at the Danish court and in the major churches was of a very high standard. (It is to be remembered that the court and the churches at that time were the most important customers, when it came to music and thus the music scene evolved around these institutions). Names like Heinrich Schütz and John Dowland are still remembered. Schütz was a church musician in Copenhagen and there he established the court orchestra. Dowland, a famous lutanist and composer, was a court musician. He lived in Elsinore. Johann Lorentz worked during the first half of the 17th century as a royal organ builder and he built or rebuilt all the important organs in the Sound region in a quite conservative renaissance style, a style, which then were represented by Schütz and Dowland. One of the most important remnants of Lorentz´s activity is in the organ facade in the Holy Trinity Church in Kristianstad.
New Organs
Diderich Buxtehude followed his father’s footsteps and became the organist in the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In 1660 he applied for and got the organist post in Elsinore´s Maria Church. Probably because this post was better paid and by taking it he came closer to the rest of his family. In the time up to 1668, where he went to Lübeck to apply for a post there, he lived in the same house as his mother and father. The house still stands.
Simultaneously the old Lorenz organs were modernized in a modern Baroque style, a style, which was represented musically by Diderich Buxtehude. The German organ builder did the modernization and he was the man behind the building and rebuilding of organs in Copenhagen, Elsinore, Halmstad, Helsingborg, Landskrona and Malmo.
Diderich Buxtehude experienced and participated in a very active renewal of the music scene through the new building, which was made. Two years after he had moved to Elsinore he came back to Helsingborg to supervise the rebuilding of the organ in the Maria Church. This indicates that the Swedish takeover in Scania in 1658 did not affect the music scene right away.
The Maria Church in Helsingborg | 
Saint Anne Street in Elsinore | 
The Old Organ | 
Buxtehude | 
Choir Organ in the Mariakyrkan (Church of St, Mary) |
Connections over the Sound
In his time in Elsinore Buxtehude kept in close touch with Swedish as well as Danish officials. The only piece of music we know of that Buxtehude wrote in his time in Elsinore, is from 1665 and dedicated to Christoffer Schneider, a Swedish postmaster and later consul resident in Elsinore. From his time in Elsinore Buxtehude also was friendly with the Swedish court conductor and organist Gustav Büben. Perhaps it was on his request that Buxtehude composed the wedding cantata to the wedding between Carl XI Gustav and his Danish queen Hedvig Eleonora in 1680.
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 | | Large | Aperte mihi portas iustitiae, Elsinore 1665. (Diderik Buxtehude) |
| | Large | Aria sopra le Nozze di Sua Maesta il Re de Svecia (1680). Diderik Buxtehude |
In Lübeck
In 1668 Buxtehude moved to Lübeck, probably for career reasons, but also to get away from the meagre financial circumstances in the devastated Sound region. The three Maria Churches in Helsingborg, Elsinore and Lübeck are the main threads in his life. Even though he spent most of his active life in Lübeck and even though he achieved fame and honour there, he never forgot his roots by the Sound. That was why the periodical “Nova litteraria Maris Balthici” could claim in 1707: “He considered Denmark his native country” (Patriam agnoscit Daniam).
Diderich Buxtehude´s career as a composer and an organist culminated in Lübeck and great composers like Händel and Bach came and listened to his music. He was especially renowned for his “Lübecker Abendmusiken”, which were concerts in connection with the evensong before Christmas. He wrote new organ works for this every year. |