Hundested

 

Hundested is a port city in North Zealand with 8,616 inhabitants (2020), located on the peninsula Halsnæs in Torup Parish. The city belongs to Halsnæs Municipality and is located in the Capital Region.

In the early 1800s, the net fishermen from Lynæs began landing their ships on the beach off the reef. During the 1830s, many of the fishermen built dwelling houses on the site. As the ships got bigger, the port had to be expanded. Originally, the harbor had simply consisted of some rice paddies going out into the water. Over time, the Port of Hundested developed into a modern traffic port.

The railway came to Hundested in 1916 as an extension of the Hillerød-Frederiksværk line.

 

The port

In 1927, a ferry connection was established to Rørvig. The Grenaa-Hundested Line was active in the period 1934-1996, but disappeared as a result of competing companies' more attractive connections to Jutland.

Hundested Harbor today consists of a fishing harbor, ferry harbor, freight harbor, container harbor and marina.

There are several fishmongers at the harbor, and in 2008 a glassblowing was inaugurated. During these years, several artists are helping to create new life on the waterfront, including the annual sand sculpture festival.

In the years 2010-2012, there have been several activities at the harbor, for example a brewery in the old sewing workshop / smithy. Home-brewed beer and light snacks are served here. Fiskeriets og Havnens Hus tells about the harbor through time. Work is underway to create a maritime experience center in new buildings at Hundested Harbor. A newly restored Hundested engine has been set up, which you can hear on occasion.

 

Attractions

The city's sand sculpture festival from May to September is a true display of imaginative and beautifully executed sand sculptures. Artists from home and abroad have been working for a long time to shape sculptures based on different themes. The sand sculptures can stand for several months and survive even heavy rain.

In the harbor, with the water as a neighbor, is in a black building the glass workshop Glassmedjen, which was inaugurated in 2008. Here you experiment with old and modern techniques. You can daily experience the transformation of glass from raw material to finished art when the glassblowers work in the workshop.

In Knud Rasmussen's House is a museum with effects from his Greenland expeditions. The house is beautifully situated overlooking the water in the hills northeast of the harbor. There are barely two kilometers to walk.

 

History

The place name, listed as Hundested Aaß, Hunder steed leed m.fl. is mentioned for the first time in the field book from 1682. The (village) town name appears for the first time in a church book from 1841. Local historical sources later tell of a very large "Hundesten", which lay on the shore at the very first pilot house on the site where the current Sydhavnsvej ends in Strandvejen.

The origin of the name remains unknown. It CAN refer to the animal name 'dog'. The connection with 'seal' dogs is doubtful, however, as seal dogs are not registered in dialects north of Møn.

Skrønen
A tourist brochure from 1963 tells that there was previously a rock reef, which stretched in a northwesterly direction from Spodsbjerg and far out to sea. According to this, a very large number of seals (dogs) lived and bred there, and several Danish kings, came to Hundested to hunt seals.

The reef's rock should later have been removed and used as a foundation for Copenhagen's lake fortification, and when large parts of the rock reef disappeared, it accelerated coastal erosion, as the steep slopes at Spodsbjerg should testify.

Ancient charts and other historical sources contradict all of this as a modern myth.