Otterup is a former station town on northern Funen with 5,229
inhabitants (2020), located 15 km north of Odense, 6 km northwest of
the charging station Klintebjerg by Odense Fjord and 23 km east of
the municipal seat in Bogense. The city is the largest in Nordfyn
Municipality and is located in the Region of Southern Denmark.
Otterup is located in Otterup Parish. Otterup Church is located
in the city. 2 km northeast of the city is the manor Ørritslevgård.
Sletten Skole, with a total of 860 pupils, has three departments:
Both the Northwest department in Otterup's north-western detached house
quarter and the Skovløkken department, 3 km southeast of the city, have
0.-6. class, and department Otterup in the middle of the city has 0.-9.
class. All three departments have after-school care for children in
grades 0-2. class and club for children in grades 3-6. class.
Otterup Realskole from 1884 has 232 students, divided into one track in
grades 0-6. grade and two tracks in grades 7-9. class. The school has an
after-school program with guaranteed places for children in grades 0-3.
class.
Otterup Ball- and Sports Club (OB&IK) has its home ground in the town. In 2009-13 the club played in the 2nd division (football). It was founded in 1913 and has over 500 members. In addition to football, it has room for other sports such as handball, badminton, table tennis, boxing, karate and gymnastics, but several of these have gradually been separated into independent clubs. Thus, Otterup Handball Club (Otterup HK) was founded in 1953. It has approx. 300 members and runs a gym together with OB&IK. Most recently, the Otterup Gymnasts have formed their own club.
The town is named Ottorp in 1427.
Vikinggrave
In the field Galgedil in western Otterup, Odense City Museums have
found a burial site from the Viking Age with a large number of
graves. In these, both bone material and Viking objects have been
found. In the summer of 2005, when the area was to be laid out for
detached house construction, a further 19 graves were found, which
brought the total number up to 50. Thus, the burial site is the
largest known Viking burial site on Funen. The finds can be viewed
at Odense Museum.
Nislevgård
On the western outskirts of
the town is the former manor house Nislevgård. Its owner established
in 1722 the "Savior's Hospital" in a house by the church with room
for 8 poor people. A couple of hundred years later, Otterup parish
took over the house on Bakkevej 2 and used it as a library. When the
library moved in 1958, the house became the Otterup Museum.
After the railway had come to Otterup, an 800 m long rowing track
was built between the station and Nislevgård in 1896. Its route is
preserved as Kærlighedsstien between Damløkkevej and Nislevgård and
is one of Denmark's best preserved beetle tracks.
The State
Land Law Committee took over Nislevgård in 1925. The buildings,
which were later supplemented with extensions, were infant homes
1926-80. Nislevgård is now an after-school center for the dyslexic
and has room for approx. 100 students.
The railway
Otterup
had a station on the North Funen Railway (1882-1966). It was the
largest intermediate station on the track. The railway took a major
detour to get to Otterup, as the direct line between Odense and
Bogense would be over Søndersø.
The names Jernbanegade and
Banepladsen are still reminiscent of the station town time, but the
station building has been demolished. Inside the city, small
sections of path have been laid out on the track route between
Gartnervænget and Banepladsen and along Skydebanevej. Outside the
city, a longer section of the route is preserved between Rødevej and
Åkandevej.
The development of the station town
Around
1870, the conditions are described as follows: "Otterup by
Landeveien, with Church, Pharmacy and Hospital, Hjorslev with
School".
The station was laid a few hundred meters west of
the village street (Nørregade-Søndergade), where Otterup had already
grown together with the neighboring village Hjorslev to the south.
At the start of the course, Otterup, like many other villages, had a
school, smithy and mill, but also a pharmacy, a doctor's residence
and a midwife's house.
Around the turn of the century, the
conditions are described as follows: "Otterup (formerly Form
Ottorp), by Landevejen, with Church," Savior's Hospital "(founded
1722 by Gehejmer. Chr. Sehestedt, † 1740, and Wife, with a House by
the Church for 8 poor af Nislevgaards Gods), Apotek, Lægebolig og
Mølle; the Hjorslev (1497: Hiorsløff) built together with Otterup,
by Landevejen, with School, Realskole, Forsamlingshus ("Otterup
Forsamlingshus"), Brewery, Cementtagstensfabrik etc. and Post-og
Jærnbanestation ("Otterup Station") ".
Around 1960, Otterup
also had a technical school, mission house, stadium, police station,
cinema, hotel, bank, savings bank branch, dairy, fruit warehouse,
malting plant, cooperative cooling house, cooperative laundry,
electricity plant, waterworks, printing house and factories that
manufactured pipes, roof tiles, clogs, packaging. and furniture.
Between 1889 and 1994, the rifle factory Schultz & Larsen was
located at Fabriksvej and Skydebanevej. The company mainly produced
hunting and saloon rifles, but also in the 1920s and 1930s engaged
in the production of rifle barrels for both machine guns and
submachine guns. It developed the "Ultra 2" anti-tank weapon. The
factory building is now a culture and community center.
Otterup Municipality was formed by merging 11 parish municipalities
on 1 April 1966, i.e. before the municipal reform in 1970. A town hall
was built for the new municipality where the railway station had been
located. The new town hall replaced Otterup parish municipality's old
town hall, which is still located opposite the Otterup Hotel in
Jernbanegade. The old town hall most recently housed the school's dental
care, but the municipality put it up for sale in September 2015.
In the municipal reform in 2007, Otterup Municipality was combined with
Bogense and Søndersø municipalities to form Nordfyn Municipality.