Odense is the third largest city in Denmark and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2023, the city proper had a population of 182,387 while Odense Municipality had a population of 207,762, making it the fourth largest municipality in Denmark. Eurostat and OECD have used a definition for the Metropolitan area of Odense, which includes all municipalities in the Province of Funen, with a total population of 504,066 as of 1 July 2022
Samsø is a Danish island in the Kattegat 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) off the Jutland Peninsula. Samsø is located in Samsø municipality. The community has 3,724 inhabitants (2017) called Samsings and is 114 km² in area. Due to its central location, the island was used during the Viking Age as a meeting place. The etymology of the island's name is unknown.
The Little Belt is a strait between the island of Funen and the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. It is one of the three Danish Straits that drain and connect the Baltic Sea to the Kattegat strait, which drains west to the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
The Odense River is a river located on the island of Funen, in central Denmark. It is about 60 kilometres (37 mi) long and is named after the Funish capital, Odense, which it passes through. Boats can be rented by the river, offering a scenic ride to Fruens Bøge. Excursion boats offer rides to Carlslund, with jazz music some Saturdays during the Summer.
Ringforts or ring forts are small circular fortified settlements built during the Bronze Age, Iron Age and early Middle Ages up to about the year 1000 AD. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are also many in South Wales and in Cornwall, where they are called rounds. Ringforts come in many sizes and may be made of stone or earth. Earthen ringforts would have been marked by a circular rampart, often with a stakewall. Both stone and earthen ringforts would generally have had at least one building inside.
A Viking ring fortress, Trelleborg-type fortress, or trelleborg, is a type of circular fort of a special design, built in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. These fortresses have a strictly circular shape, with roads and gates pointing in the four cardinal directions. Inside the fort, each quadrant has one, in a single case four, square blocks of longhouses, completing the geometric symmetry. There are a total of five confirmed Viking ring fortresses at present, located in Denmark. They have been dated to the reign of Harold Bluetooth of Denmark, with an estimated near contemporary time of construction c. 980. Their exact historical context is subject to debate. In 2023, the five Danish forts were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List because of their unique architecture and testimony to the military power of the Jelling Dynasty.
Durrington Walls is the site of a large Neolithic settlement and later henge enclosure located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in England. It lies 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of Stonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north of Amesbury in Wiltshire. The henge is the second-largest Late Neolithic palisaded enclosure known in the United Kingdom, after Hindwell in Wales.
The Danevirke or Danework is a system of Danish fortifications in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. This historically important linear defensive earthwork across the neck of the Cimbrian peninsula was initiated by the Danes in the Nordic Iron Age about AD 650. It was later expanded multiple times during Denmark's Viking Age and High Middle Ages. The Danevirke was last used for military purposes in 1864 during the Second War of Schleswig.
Aggersborg is the largest of Denmark's former Viking ring fortress, and one of the largest archaeological sites in Denmark. It is located near Aggersund on the north side of the Limfjord. It consists of a circular rampart surrounded by a ditch. Four main roads arranged in a cross connects the fortress center with the rampart's outer ring. The roads were tunneled under the outer rampart, leaving the circular structure intact. Many archaeological excavations have been conducted on the site, revealing its original structure and design. These excavations also uncovered a large number of artefacts from the Iron Age and Viking Age. The surface of the site as it exists today is a reconstruction.
Fyrkat is a former Viking ring castle in Denmark, dating from c. 980 AD. It is located near the town of Hobro, some distance from the present end of the Mariager Fjord in Northern Jutland. The fortress is built on a narrow piece of land, with a stream on one side and swampy area on the other sides. Likely built during the reign of Harald Gormsson or his son Sweyn Forkbeard, the fortress may have served as barracks or as a defensive stronghold. It would have help to enable control of the traffic on the main land-based trading route between Aalborg and Aarhus. Because of its unique architecture and testimony to the strategic power of the House of Knýtlinga, Fyrkat was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List along with four other Viking ring castles in 2023.
The Old Town is the name popularly given to the oldest part of Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh. The area has preserved much of its medieval street plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Together with the 18th/19th-century New Town, and West End, it forms part of a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Trelleborg, west of Slagelse on the Danish island of Zealand, is one of seven known Viking ring castles. When built, the fortress was situated on a peninsula that jutted into the swampy area between two rivers. The swamp was connected to the Great Belt by a lake and could be navigated by Viking ships. Trelleborg is believed to have been ordered by King Harald Bluetooth in the year 980 AD and it might have commanded the Great Belt and its sea traffic, between the islands of Zealand and Funen.
Funen, with an area of 3,099.7 square kilometres (1,196.8 sq mi), is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of 2020. Fyn's main city is Odense, which is connected to the sea by a seldom-used canal. The city's shipyard, Odense Steel Shipyard, has been relocated outside Odense proper.
A circular rampart is an embankment built in the shape of a circle that was used as part of the defences for a military fortification, hill fort or refuge, or was built for religious purposes or as a place of gathering.
Alrø is a small Danish island in Horsens Fjord on the east coast of Jutland within Odder Municipality.The island is 7.52 km long with a coastline of 14 km, and stretches a little over 5 km wide from east to west. With a population of 147 as of January 2013, the island can be reached by road over an artificial causeway which connects it to the mainland on the northern side of the fjord. Alrø has been inhabited continuously since the Stone Age up to modern times, with possible additional usage during the Viking Age as a landing site.
Gamleborg, also known as Gamleborg Viking Fortress, was the first fortification on the Danish island of Bornholm. Built around 750 AD, it was the seat of the kings of Bornholm during the Viking age (750–1050) and early Middle Ages (1050–1150). The massive fortress is 264 metres (866 ft) long from north to south and 110 metres (360 ft) wide from east to west, with gates to the north and southwest. Around 1100, significant alterations were made and it was reinforced, but it was abandoned soon afterwards in favour of the fortification of Lilleborg, roughly 700 metres (2,300 ft) to the northeast.
The archaeological sites Randlev and Hesselbjerg refer to two closely related excavations done throughout the 20th century near the village of Randlev in the Odder Municipality of Denmark, three kilometers southeast of the town of Odder. Randlev is known primarily for its Romanesque church constructed sometime around 1100 A.D. Hesselbjerg refers to the large Viking-Age cemetery discovered on the Hesselbjerg family farm and the site Randlev refers to the nearby settlement from the same period. Although both Randlev and Hesselbjerg were contemporaneous and encompass a similar area, Hesselbjerg refers more specifically to the 104 graves discovered prior to the later excavation at the site Randlev, which pertains to the Viking Age settlement. The settlement consisted of a farm complex that was likely active during the ninth and tenth centuries; finds from the site such as silver hoards and elaborate jewelry indicate that the farm was likely prosperous, a conjecture which is supported by the extremely fertile land surrounding the area. Artifacts were found in the vicinity of the Hesselbjerg and Randlev sites as early as 1932 when a local farmer discovered a silver hoard, but serious excavations were not conducted until 1963. These excavations ended in 1970; however, Moesgård Museum returned to the site in 1997 and continued analysis until 2010.
Borgring also known as Vallø Borgring, is a Danish Viking ring fortress located near Køge on the island of Zealand. Likely built around 970 or 980, the fortress may have been built to defend trade routes or as a military barracks. In 2023, along with four other Viking ring fortresses, Borgring was isncribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its unique architecture and testimony to the strategic and military power of the House of Knýtlinga.
Tønnesminde is the site of an archaeological excavation ground and present day organic farm on the island of Samsø, Denmark. Archaeological evidence attests the area around Tønnesminde has a long history of human occupation, dating from approximately 4000 BC to present day. Recent excavations suggest that Tønnesminde contains settlements dating from the Funnelbeaker culture in the Early Neolithic period, Early Bronze Age, Pre-Roman Iron Age, and Viking Age.
