Kerteminde is a town and former market town on East Funen with
5,987 inhabitants (2020), located 21 km northwest of Nyborg and 19
km northeast of Odense. Kerteminde is the municipal seat in
Kerteminde Municipality and is located in the Region of Southern
Denmark.
To the east of the town is Kerteminde Bay, which is
part of the Great Belt, and to the west is Kerteminde Fjord, which
continues in Kertinge Nor. The town has Funen's largest fishing
port, and there was a fish auction 1935-2003.
Kerteminde belongs to Kerteminde-Drigstrup
Parish, which arose on 1 December 2013 by merging the two parishes.
Kerteminde Parish was quite small, so in the 1920s Kerteminde grew
beyond the parish boundary and got a suburb on Over Kærby Mark in
Drigstrup Parish.
Kerteminde Parish Church Sankt Laurentii
Church is located in the city. In the town there is also Emmaus
Church, which is owned by Kerteminde-Dalby Congregation, which also
has Bethlehem Church in Dalby.
Kerteminde
Byskole has 466 students, divided into 0.-9. grade. Kerteminde
Continuation School is a Grundtvig-Koldsk continuation school with
23 employees.
The town has 4 day care institutions: Balders
Hus with nursery and kindergarten for 78 children, the kindergarten
Fjordvang for 53 children and the kindergarten Nymarken for 62
children and the private nursery and kindergarten Mølleløkken for 51
children.
Kerteminde Idrætscenter consists of two sports
halls by the city's stadium.
The town's name (1412 Kiertheminde, 1430 Kirtimynnæ) comes from the old name for Kerteminde Fjord, Kirta, followed by the Old Danish word minni, 'mynni 'mouth'.
Findings of coins from Svend Estridsen's time indicate that there have already been activities around the year 1050 on the site where the city is located today. Around 1225 there was a fish market, but only in 1350 does Kerteminde appear as a town name, when a merchant from Lübeck refers to the town as Kertemunde in Pheonia when he donates 5 marks to the town's church.
Kerteminde became a market town on 7 December 1413, when Erik of
Pomerania gave it the same privileges as Svendborg and Faaborg.
Kerteminde included the area "Bådsbæk and then west to Lyngsled, up then
on the other road across the Sound and then to the dug dyke south of the
Sound". Langebro is believed to have been built around 1415, so that the
city was connected across the strait. The city's market privileges were
confirmed by Christopher of Bavaria in 1441 and again in 1460, when
Christian I specifies them. The privileges were confirmed again in 1473,
when the city was given the same rights as Odense.
In 1476, the
city church's new choir was inaugurated, and the church was dedicated to
the Catholic saint St. Laurentius, so the church is henceforth called
Saint Laurentii Church.
In 1484, the city's privileges were
confirmed by King Hans, and a mayor is mentioned for the first time.
Also, in 1503, King Hans had taken the town as protection against
preemption, as it was forbidden for foreign merchants to bargain with
the farmers within a mile radius. Kerteminde was quite a considerable
trading town, especially because of its good port; in particular, its
beer was an export item ("Kerteminde is known for good beer and bad
women"). From ancient times it was in trade with Odense, which used the
sea route through Kjertinge Fjord. By the above-mentioned regulation of
1503, it was established that "Kjerteminde and Citizens of Odense had to
buy and barter with each other thereafter, as they had done by Arild".
However, Odense must have been the dominant one, as Kerteminde could
almost be regarded as its unloading and loading area. In 1516, the
privileges were extended. New confirmations followed in 1525 and 1538.
In 1566 and 1570 the citizens of Kerteminde were ordered to convert
Langebro into a drawbridge so that ships from Odense could sail through.
In 1588, Kerteminde had only 4 merchants, but many seafarers who went on
freight for the Odense merchants, several of whom, such as Oluf Bager,
had houses and traded there. However, Kerteminde also benefited
significantly from this interaction, and by the middle of the 17th
century, Arent Berntsen could refer to Kerteminde as a port, "from which
an incredible amount of grain and the country's various goods are
exported to foreign places, both by the town's own citizens and by
Citizens of Odense, as their Corn Spiker and Lastested maintain".
Here, as in Odense, this prosperity was shattered by the Swedish
War. The city was occupied by the enemy, but it suffered most from the
landing of the royal troops under Field Marshal Hans Schack, as it was
bombarded by the Dutch fleet under Admiral Ruijter to cover the landing.
The damage to 133 farms and houses, of which 24 had burned completely,
was estimated at 19,300 Sletdaler.
In 1672, the town had 642 inhabitants. Its trade completely languished, especially after the sailing through the Odense Fjord was opened. However, it is still mentioned in an ordinance of 28 January 1682 among the towns that were allowed to conduct foreign trade, and among those whose administration consisted of a mayor and two aldermen, while the smaller towns such as Bogense only had one town clerk. The declining state lasted throughout the 18th century. In 1769, the town had 696 inhabitants.
"Kerteminde" Købstad northeast of Funen by a large fjord, between
Bjerge Herred and Hindsholm on the grounds of Odense County, but under
Nyborg County. 2½ miles northeast from Odense and 2¼ miles northeast
from Nyborg. The weapon is a ship in full sail. The city's first
privileges are from Eric of Pomerania 1413.
The city has 6
streets, 3 gates, 172 houses insured for 35,700 rigsdaler besides the
publique [public] buildings. The church was built in 1476 for St. Honor
of Laurentius. The altarpiece and the pulpit are the work of a sculptor.
In the Danish school, built in 1741, live the clerk and the
schoolmaster. The council chamber is located directly opposite the
church on the square and was built in 1736 of half-timbered timber with
a fire wall to the street.
The city council is held every Monday.
The city authority is a city clerk who is also the city clerk. In the
town there is a parish priest, a chaplain, 14 merchants, 42 craftsmen, a
total of 65 citizens.
The harbor is quite deep and very
convenient for the ships, which can lie along the side of the ship's
bridge right down to Langebro. The same can accommodate 12-16 vessels of
4-600 barrels, but the inlet is only 6-7 feet deep. For the maintenance
of the ship's bridge, some of every barrel of goods is given, and to
maintain Langebro, which is 216 cubits long, grain is also given from
surrounding herds and parishes.
There are 3 good weather turbines
on the town grounds. Just outside the city there are two beautiful
springs and wells in the city, but almost all of them have brackish
water.
The whole field of the town with church lands is 28
barrels, 1 skippound 1 quart of hartkorn. To the town are 8 vessels and
good fishing. A kind of large and good flounder called aldermen are
caught here. When King Frederik IV was in town, Privy Councilor Gabel
told the king that the mayor had eaten two councillors, which riddle he
then solved.
The post arrives from Odense on Monday morning and
Thursday evening, departs on Wednesday morning at 10 and Lion's Day
dinner. The consumption in 1764 was 1,705 rigsdaler. The two annual
markets are held on 26 June and 22 October.
The early
industrialization
Kerteminde's population was increasing in the late
1800s and early 1900s: 1,833 in 1850, 1,963 in 1855, 2,148 in 1860,
2,274 in 1870, 2,488 in 1880, 2,471 in 1890, 2,552 in 1901, 2 .499 in
1906 and 2,719 in 1911.
Factories and industrial facilities
existed around 1900: two sawmills, salt works, iron foundry, brandy
distillery, two beer breweries, mineral water factory, two lime kilns.
coke factory and printing house. "Kjerteminde Avis" was published in the
city. Five markets were held annually: in February and June with horses,
in March and November with horses and cattle and in October with horses,
cattle and sheep. Torvedag was every Wednesday and Saturday.
The
composition of the population by means of livelihood was in 1890: 154
lived from non-material activities, 833 from crafts and industry, 471
from trade and turnover, 125 from shipping, 385 from fishing, 18 from
agriculture, 11 from horticulture, 399 from various day laborers, 54
from their means, 20 enjoyed alms, and 1 was in prison. According to a
census in 1906, the population was 2,499, of which 143 supported
themselves by non-material activities, 78 by agriculture, forestry and
dairying, 352 by fishing, 1,081 by crafts and industry, 395 by trade and
more, 224 by transport, 99 were shopkeepers, 75 lived on public support
and 52 on other or unspecified business.
The candle memorial
track
Kerteminde got a station on the Odense-Kerteminde-Dalby
Railway, which was opened in 1900. In 1914, it was extended to Martofte
and came to be called the Odense-Kerteminde-Martofte Railway. Kerteminde
Station was located by the harbor and had 4 continuous tracks, including
2 platform tracks. As the railway's main station, Kerteminde also had a
water tower and a water crane for the steam locomotives, but no depot –
it was in Martofte. In addition to the 4 continuous tracks, there was a
short track 0, originally with a side ramp and animal pen, later with a
warehouse and plug tracks at both ends to resp. turntable and shed for
the shunting tractor.
The outermost of the 4 continuous tracks
was called the "fish track" because it served the fish cannery 555. The
track had side ramps and also served Kerteminde Trælasthandel, a seed
cleaner and a number of other companies. The double harbor track with
bypass and weigh station at the entrance served companies that traded in
grain and fodder, timber, seeds, coal and fertiliser, as well as Dansk
Andels Ægexport.
The Kerteminde railway was closed in 1966. The
station building was demolished to make room for the town hall in the
new Kerteminde Municipality.
Tornøes Hotel was a merchant's farm in the 17th century, and you know
the names of the property's owners over the past 300 years. Wentzel
Tornøe bought the property in 1862 and received hospitality citizenship
in 1865. The hotel has been renovated over the years and today has 38
rooms as well as party and meeting rooms of various sizes. The hotel
also owns Kerteminde Bryghus.
Kerteminde Bed & Breakfast is the
old Sailors' Home, which was inaugurated on 17 December 1927 with room
for 32 sailors who slept in bunk beds. During the Occupation, Germans
were housed here. The sailors' home had to close in 1964, but was
renovated and resurrected in 2007 as a Bed & Breakfast hotel. It has 6
rooms with room for a total of 16 guests.
The town also has
holiday homes, campsite, marina and Shops in Gågaden as well as a
tourist office.
From Kerteminde Harbour, the Romsø Boat sails on
Wednesdays and Saturdays in April-August for day trips to the
uninhabited Romsø.
The town is known from the revue "Min Amanda Var Fra Kerteminde",
written by Axel Schwanenflügel in the late 19th century. The granite
statue Amanda, depicting a young fisher girl, was made by Robert
Lund-Jensen in 1954 and erected as the city's landmark at Langebro,
which leads over the fjord.
The Johannes Larsen Museum is a
museum for the city's famous painter Johannes Larsen, set up in his
home, where he lived for 60 years. The local history museum Farvergården
was established in 1937. Both museums today belong to Østfyn's Museums
after a merger in 2009. Fjord&Bælt is a combination of experience center
and research institution, located at the entrance to the fjord.
2
km southeast of the city is the manor house Lundsgård. Here, the 2,000
m² cow shed has been renovated and transformed into the cultural center
"Annexet ved Lundsgaard Gods".
Taarup Maskinfabrik started in 1877 in the forge in the village of
Tårup, 5 km northwest of Kerteminde. It was located here until 1915,
when it moved into the city. In 1954, it was the first company to move
into Kerteminde's new industrial quarter in the northwestern end of the
city. The company's two biggest commercial successes were the row
cleaner and the distinctive long-necked green harvester. In 1993, Taarup
was incorporated into the Norwegian industrial group Kverneland.
Kverneland's factory in Kerteminde has 350 employees and 50,000 m² of
production facilities. It is the group's competence center for grass
equipment (mowers, disc harvesters, rakes, turners, balers and wagons)
and feed equipment.