Bogense is a port town on the Kattegat on northern Funen with
3,990 inhabitants (2020), located 15 km northwest of Søndersø, 23 km
west of Otterup and 29 km east of Middelfart. The city is the
municipal seat of Nordfyn Municipality and is located in the Region
of Southern Denmark. The inhabitants of the town are called
bogensere or bogenseboer.
Etymology
Bogense (1485: Bognæs,
1492: Boghens. The name may come from the former wealth of beech
forest).
History
Origin
As King Valdemar Sejr's
property is mentioned 1231 Harridslevgaard with its adjoining 144
marks of gold, and under this Bogense must have been included as a
minor village, for 1327 Bogense is mentioned among the estates of
the Swedish prince Erik Valdemarssøn, an illegitimate son of
Valdemar Sejr's granddaughter Jutta, claimed his maternal
inheritance, which was also awarded to him in Nyborg on 15 July.
The Middle Ages
The first time the town's name appears is
1288, when King Erik Menved affirmed its privileges; they were later
confirmed 1327 by Valdemar III, 1425, 1442, 1449, on which occasion
its mayor and council are first mentioned, 1485, 1504 by Queen
Christine (who extended them), to whose livgeding it belonged, 1517
(again extended) , 1561 and 1597. There must have been in the Middle
Ages a Sankt Jørgensgård for lepers; at least in 1517 a Sankt
Jørgens Chapel is mentioned, by which the mayor and a citizen, Claus
Eriksen, received royal permission to build a watermill (the name
was probably still preserved in the now disused Kappelsmølle on
Bogense Mark); likewise, there has probably been a Our Lady's Feast.
The city has probably in the late Middle Ages and the beginning of
recent times been relatively considerable next to Funen's other
smaller market towns.