Hanstholm is a fishing town in Thy with 2,136 inhabitants (2020),
located in Hansted Parish. The city belongs to Thisted Municipality
and is located in the North Jutland Region. The name comes from the
fishing village Hansted, which is located at the western end of the
limestone cliff that lies on Jutland's northwestern point.
Hanstholmknuden is geologically the northern remnant after glacial
erosion of the top over a large salt diapir. It is approx. 7 km long
and approx. 3 km wide. The suffix -holm is due to the fact that the
area was previously an island (islet), and the name was thus
formerly Hanstedholm. The residents of Hanstholm are called
"holmboer".
"Hanstholm" was gradually used as a common place
name for the municipality of Ræhr-Hansted-Vigsø, which was named
after the three most important localities on the limestone cliff.
The municipality was briefly called "Holmen" and also included the
areas south of the limestone cliff Sårup, Savbjerg and Borup. During
the municipal reform in 1970, Klitmøller and Hjardemål as well as
Frøstrup were merged with the municipality, which officially took
the name Hanstholm Municipality. As something new, the town of
Hansted was now also called Hanstholm. The area's other place names
have been retained. Previously, the fishing village was in Hansted
Parish, Hillerslev county, until 1970 Thisted county, 1970-2006
Viborg county.
Hanstholm is difficult to reach by public transport.
By plane
The nearest airport is in Aalborg, there are direct flights from
Copenhagen and Amsterdam.
By train
For rail travellers, the
nearest train station is Thisted, 20km away. From there there is a bus
connection to Hanstholm, which also transports bicycles (depending on
space).
In the street
From Flensburg there are three minor
options for driving to Hanstholm:
E 45 and road 29 via Aarhus,
Randers and Fjerritslev, 348 km
E 45 and road 18 via Herring,
Holstebro and Hurup, 323 km
E 45 and road 18, 34 and 26 via Herring,
Skive and Thisted 316 km.
By boat
Hanstholm no longer has a
ferry service, the Iceland ferry, which departed from Hanstholm for
decades, has now been relocated to Hirtshals, since the port is easier
to approach there even in bad weather.
Pleasure boats find berths
in Hirtshals Harbour.
By bicycle
Several long-distance cycle
routes run through Hanstholm:
North Sea Cycle Route (EuroVelo 12).
the National Cycle Route 1, otherwise largely identical to the North Sea
Cycle Route, takes a different route here in the north-west corner of
Jutland
National Cycle Route 2 crosses the country from Hanstholm to
Copenhagen
Hanstholm consists of two parts: the harbor below the ridge and the
place on top of it. In between you have to overcome quite a few meters
in altitude.
Parking spaces are usually found where you need
them.
Hanstholm Fyr. Hanstholm Lighthouse was the first lens lighthouse in
Denmark, built in 1843 and electrified in 1889. It is also the highest
lighthouse in Denmark, 23 m high and also located high up on the ridge
you can see it far out in the North Sea with its light height of 65 m.
Today the lighthouse is fully automated, and the tourist information is
located in the former lighthouse keeper's house. Open: Visitable all
year round.
Bunkermuseum Hanstholm, Molevej 29. Tel.: +45 97 96 17
36, e-mail: info@museumscenterhanstholm.dk. The facility consists of
three gun emplacements, which are connected to a narrow-gauge railway
specially designed for ammunition transport. The exterior is freely
accessible, while the museum building offers access (for a fee) inside a
gun emplacement where numerous rooms have been reconstructed. In
addition, in these bunkers, as in the adjacent museum building, there is
very detailed information about the war years in Denmark, the
development and expansion of the Atlantic Wall in Denmark and life in
the bunkers. Not only those interested in the military will be drawn
here; the museum is also a classic pilgrimage destination for Olsen Gang
fans, since the film "The Olsen Gang Goes to Jutland" was shot here and
in the surrounding area in 1971. In contrast to the film, the gun
positions are not connected to the bunkers on the beach. These bunkers
can also be walked on (bring a good flashlight), they are freely
accessible all year round. Open: Exhibition: Feb-May 10am-4pm, Jun-Aug
10am-5pm, Sept-1st Nov. 10am-4pm, Nov./Dec. closed. Price: adults 80
kr., children 30 kr
bunkers. In addition to the bunker museum, there
are numerous other bunker facilities around Hanstholm that are freely
accessible, e.g. T. further inland, like the bunkers south of the city,
but also directly on the waterline or partly washed over by the water
like on the northern beaches of the city.
More Olsen Gang locations.
First and foremost, these would be the bunkers on the beach, which are
not in Hanstholm itself, but further east in Vigsø. The road to Vigsø is
signposted, follow the sign "Stranden" in the village itself. Hamborg is
a small town on the road from Hanstholm to Vigsø. If you follow the
"Stranden" sign there, you will come to the exact path that connects the
premises of the scrap dealer "Mads Madsen" with the bunkers in the film.
Hanstholm Game Reserve. Bird paradise west of the village.
1 shopping mall. Shopping in Hanstholm is largely concentrated in the
central shopping center in the middle of town. Here is a mini-mall,
which, in addition to a bakery, butcher and pub, houses a limited range
of clothing stores, a supermarket and other shops for everyday needs.
2 Fakta Supermarket, Bytorvet 3. Tel.: +45 43 86 43 86. Open: Daily 8am
- 9pm.
There is also a supermarket and shops for fishing and boating
in the port area.
Hanstholm Camping, Hamborgvej 95. Tel.: +45 97 96 51 98, E-Mail:
info@hanstholm-camping.dk.
Hanstholm Seemannsheim & Hotel, Kai
Lindbergs Gade 71 (am Hafen). Tel.: +45 97 96 11 45.
Hotel Hanstholm,
Chr. Hansens Vej 2. Tel.: +45 97 96 10 44. War ebenfalls Drehort
(Quartier von Karin und Rico).
In 1843, Denmark's largest and most powerful
lighthouse (Hanstholm Lighthouse) was built on Hanstholm with a
lighthouse keeper's residence, just as there was a rescue station.
The population lived off agriculture and fishing.
In 1917,
the Riksdag decided to build a harbor in Hansted. The leader of the
project was engineer Jørgen Fibiger. Due to scarce appropriations,
the port was not completed before World War II. The occupying forces
stopped the construction of the harbor in 1942.
During the
war, extensive fortifications were built in Hansted
(Verteidigungsbereich Hansted). A similar plant was built in
Southern Norway Battery Vara (Møvik Fort). Together they were to
master the entrance through the Skagerrak to the Kattegat. An area
in the middle where the cannons did not reach was blocked by naval
mines. At the same time, the inhabitants of the area were evacuated
from the site, and it took several years after the end of World War
II before they could return. The largest cannons, 38 cm, were of the
same type as the Tirpitz position (not completed) at Blåvand,
however, the piles were of a different type.
After the war,
the harbor construction was confirmed by the Folketing after major
political discussions. It was started in 1960 and in 1967 the
fishing port could be opened, while the traffic port came later. In
parallel with the port construction, an urban planning took place,
which was completed in 1966. As there was great uncertainty about
the future urban development, the urban plan was designed so that an
area for center purposes and public buildings was laid out closest
to the harbor. In the immediate vicinity of this, the east of a
larger residential area was laid around an east-west axis, as the
expansion of the residential area was assumed to take place
quarterly as the housing need increased, thereby ensuring that the
city was functional regardless of size. Stage sketches were made for
1500-2000, 2400-3500, 3,400-4,800 and 4,500-6000 inhabitants.
Farthest to the east and separated from the residential area by an
access road from the hinterland to the port, an industrial area was
laid out.
From 1949, a nature reserve was laid out as a game
reserve south of the city; today, the Hanstholm reserve is Denmark's
largest nature reserve and part of Denmark's first national park,
National Park Thy.
Hanstholm is thus both a city, an old name
for a limestone cliff and the name of a former municipality by the
North Sea. During the municipal reform in 2007, the municipality was
merged with two other municipalities and thereby disappeared as an
independent municipality, as it is now part of Thisted Municipality.
Until the autumn of 2008, the company Fjord-Line's
ferries sailed from the port to western Norway (Egersund, Haugesund
and Bergen). Fjord-Line's fast ferry Fjord Cat (formerly MasterCat
and Mads Mols) sailed to Kristiansand. until October 2009.
There has also previously been a ferry connection to both the Faroe
Islands and Iceland from Hanstholm with the ferry Norröna owned by
the Faroese shipping company Smyril Line. But after about 20 years,
where the ferry from the Faroe Islands and Iceland regularly called
at the city's port, Smyril Line chose a little unexpectedly to stop
all its sailing to Hanstholm in the autumn of 2010 and instead move
all its operations in Denmark to Hirtshals about 140 km north.
With the loss of the ferry to the Faroe Islands and Iceland,
Hanstholm harbor also lost its last ferry connection to the city,
but hard work is still being done to establish a new ferry route
abroad and to get some of the old routes back to Hanstholm harbor.
During World War II, Hanstholm was
heavily fortified with a myriad of bunkers and a heavy coastal
battery. Some of the remains can be seen in Bunkermuseum Hanstholm.
On the coast between Hanstholm and Vigsø is an extra bunker facility
with 17-cm cannons.
The cannon position from World War II was
the starting point for the film The Olsen Gang in Jutland. The
corresponding Norwegian film Olsen Banden tar Gull was shot at the
opposite cannon position, Møvik fort (Batteri Vara) near
Kristiansand.
The sea hero Niels Juel spent his childhood on
the farm Nørtorp. South of the farm is the old rampart. The highest
points in the area are Hjertebjerg Høj and Baun Høj. In Sårup there
are four protected giant mounds. There are many plowed giant mounds
on Hanstholmen. In addition, there are a number of settlements from
the Iron Age.