Præstø is a port city and former market town in South Zealand
with 3,814 inhabitants (2020), located 20 km south of Faxe, 25 km
southeast of Næstved and 17 km northeast of Vordingborg. The city
belongs to Vordingborg Municipality and is located in Region
Zealand.
Præstø belongs to Præstø Parish, and Præstø Church
is located in the town. The relatively large church with 2 ships was
formerly part of a monastery that belonged to the Order of Antony.
Origin
Præstø was built on an island that had a
bridge over to Zealand, and did not become landlocked until the
beginning of the 19th century. It has been considered uncertain, of
which the first part of the name comes, but place name research now
believes that it is intended that Præstø until the middle of the
14th century was owned by Skovkloster, the later Herlufsholm Estate
in Næstved.
The town has a natural harbor by Præstø Fjord,
which is shielded towards Faxe Bay by the elongated peninsula
Feddet. Præstø was called by many Hanseatic ships and traded
diligently on the Scanian herring market.
The Middle Ages
Præstø is not one of the country's oldest cities. The name first
appears in 1353, when Skovkloster - later Herlufsholm - among other
things ceded "Præstø with its Fang" to Valdemar Atterdag to be free
of hospitality, and in 1403 the town received its first privileges
from Erik of Pomerania, confessing to the townspeople in Præstø all
the freedoms and privileges that his predecessors had granted the
citizens of Roskilde. The town was probably connected to the west
with the surrounding land by a wooden bridge, Vesterbro, which
lasted until the beginning of the 19th century, when it was replaced
by a permanent dam (the western part of Algade, which is built in
the new era , bears the name Vesterbro). To the east over the Tubæk
river there was only a much later connection; here the crossing took
place by boats or carriages, or one passed by large rocks at low
tide. Later, a wooden bridge, Østerbro, was built, but it was sold
at auction in 1784, and the crossing took place as before until the
new dam leading to Skibinge was built in 1819.
The importance
of the town in the Middle Ages was only small and was especially
associated with Sankt Antonii Kloster, which was located northwest
of the church on Klosternakke. Its foundation is due to Christian I,
who in 1470 donated the Antonites in Morkjær in Angel "Vor Frue
Kirke i Præstø" with associated vicarage so that those who could
establish a branch - later the town's vicarage was in Grønnegade,
until in 1732 it was sold at auction. It was not until 1474,
however, that the church's association with Morkjær was legally
recognized. The monastery was strongly dependent on Morkjær; the
monks had to pay an annual fee for it in grain and money, and in
order to bring it to life as well as to provide for themselves, they
went begging in Roskilde and Lunde Stifter. Various gifts of other
kinds, however, also flowed to the monastery; Thus, in 1474, Jørgen
Gøye considered it in his will with 10 marks, Mrs. Ingerd Bille
donated it to a farm in Øllerup in Øster Flakkebjerg Herred, and in
1504 King Hans dedicated Beldringe Church in Bårse Herred to it,
after which monks from the monastery served the priesthood here.
Markvard Nielsen enlisted in the Brotherhood of the Order in 1476,
and so did Anders Bille's wife, Mrs. Pernille Krognos in 1511. At
the time of the Reformation, the monastery was very poor; in 1532 it
had to "out of necessity" sell a farm in Copenhagen in Lille
Pilestræde (Antonistræde), in which the terminating brothers had
their abode, and at about the same time sold the estate in Øllerup
and elsewhere.
The Renaissance
Around 1536 the monastery
was abolished; a few of the monks became evangelical priests. The
monastery church became the town's parish church; in 1560 the
citizens received 7 of the monastery's stalls, which they were to
build and improve, and the land guild thereof was to be used for
wine and bread for the parish priest. At the same time, it was
allowed to demolish St. Gertrude's Chapel, which was located on the
western outskirts of the city and probably originated from the
creation of the monastery, and use the material to improve the
parish church (possibly the new part of the church dates from this
time). In 1563, the sheriff of Jungshoved, Bjørn Kaas, was ordered
to have "the desolate monastery in Præstø taken down as close as at
the church". 41,000 bricks from there were used at Copenhagen
Castle.
The city was not significant at the beginning of the
new age. In 1551 it had no school at all; in 1557 the citizens were
exempted from paying city tax for the next 3 years "so that they
could better get to Næring and improve their City". It also suffered
a lot in the Karl Gustav wars of 1658-60. In the 17th century, the
city was hit by a storm surge, several large fires and the siege of
the Swedes. Svend Gønges Torv and Svend Gønges Vej are named after
"Gøngehøvdingen" Svend Poulsen Gønge, who together with his snaps
fought against the Swedish soldiers in the Stevns, Præstø and Køge
area in 1658-59.
The town's progress was further hampered by raging fires, such as
in 1658, 1670, 1711, when 28 farms and houses burned, 1750, when the
eastern part, and 1757, when the western part burned. In 1711 it was
severely haunted by the plague (brought here by a skipper from
Copenhagen on August 20), as 89 people died. In 1672 it had 435
inhabitants, in 1769 the number had dropped to 379. In the 19th
century the town prospered considerably, especially by its rather
considerable trade in pork and grain. Until 1740, Præstø had a Latin
school that had premises in a house in the cemetery; however, it was
very insignificant and belonged to those schools which could not
graduate from the university. In the 18th century, the town was the
garrison site for a squadron of the South Zealand Dragon Regiment,
which had a station in the so-called royal barracks on Klosternakke.
The enterprising grocer H.C. Grønvold established a herring
altar at the beginning of the 19th century, and he built up a
significant grain export. The bridge to Zealand was replaced by a
dam, and a new bridge to the southeast over Tubæk was completed in
1819. Grønvold had Præstø Town Hall built in 1823.
The population of Præstø was increasing at the
end of the 19th century, but stagnated at the beginning of the 20th
century: 951 in 1850, 1,154 in 1855, 1,298 in 1860, 1,413 in 1870,
1,460 in 1880, 1,500 in 1890, 1,497 in 1901, 1,469 in 1906 and 1,527
in 1911.
In Præstø, a market was held on the 2nd Tuesday of
each month with horses, cattle, sheep and pigs.
In 1855,
there were several distilleries, iron foundries, cotton weaving and
shipbuilding of factories and industrial plants. In 1872 there was
also a tobacco factory, two tanneries and a printing house. Around
the year 1900, there was Antonii Bavarian and White Beer Brewery,
steam, sawmill and planing mill and steam distillery as well as an
iron foundry and machine factory with about 35 workers.
A
newspaper was published in Præstø: "Præstø Folkeblad".
By
industry, the population of the city in 1890 was divided into the
following groups, comprising both dependents and dependents: 189
lived by intangible enterprise, 617 by trade and industry, 358 by
trade and commerce, 52 by shipping, 32 by fishing, 54 by
agriculture, 4 by horticulture, while 125 were distributed to other
occupations, 51 lived on their means, 14 enjoyed alms, and 4 were in
prison. In rural areas the distribution was the same year: 13 lived
by intangible activity, 51 by agriculture, 2 by horticulture, 3 by
shipping, 30 by craft and industry, 9 by trade, 4 by other
occupations, and 2 enjoyed alms. According to a 1906 census, the
population was 1,469, of which 153 subsisted on intangible
activities, 63 on agriculture, forestry and dairy farming, 28 on
fishing, 583 on crafts and industry, 379 on trade and more, 156 on
transport, 59 were retired people, 32 lived by public support and 16
by other or unspecified business.
When the town's former
school became too small, the school building at Klosternakken 4 was
built in 1895. The building was expanded with the 1st and 2nd floors
in 1904 and housed Præstø Folk, Middle and Real School for many
years.
Præstø got a terminus at Præstø-Næstved Jernbane,
which was opened in 1900 and was called Præstøbanen. The station was
only 150 m from the harbor, and in 1909 a harbor railway was built,
whereby Præstø partly became a harbor town for Næstved. In 1913, the
line was extended to Mern and changed its name to
Næstved-Præstø-Mern Banen. It was now called Mernbanen, but still
had its head office and workshops in Præstø.
In 1919, Præstø
Police District was established. It existed until 1973.
During the interwar period, Præstø's population was almost stagnant:
in 1921 1,470, in 1925 1,539, in 1930 1,442, in 1935 1,401, in 1940
1,425 inhabitants. But at the same time there was growth in the suburb
of Nysøhuse in Præstø Rural District and in Skibinge Hestehave in
Skibinge Parish, where a number of people with work in Præstø settled.
At the census in 1930, Præstø had 1,442 inhabitants, of which 137
supported themselves by non-material activities, 388 by craft and
industry, 339 by trade etc., 162 by transport, 119 by agriculture,
forestry and fishing, 155 by housework, 128 were out of business and 4
had not stated the source of income.
Despite the railway, the
town's development and population growth was very modest in the first
half of the 20th century. In the 1920s, the city had hardly spread
beyond the original island, only slightly to the southwest. The
neighborhoods south of Tubæk and east along the fjord first arose around
1930.
The post-war period
After the Second World War, Præstø
continued its stagnant population development. In 1945 there were 1,516
inhabitants in the market town, in 1950 1,602 inhabitants, in 1955 1,567
inhabitants, in 1960 1,528 inhabitants and in 1965 1,706 inhabitants. In
the rural district Nysøhuse, Ny Esbjerg and Rødeled grew as suburbs and
in Skibinge municipality the suburb Skibinge Hestehave grew.
The
Præstø Harbor Railway, which had lost its importance after Næstved got
its own harbor in 1938, was closed down in 1959, and in 1961 the rest of
the Mernbanen followed. The monumental station building has been
preserved at Jernbanegade 2, and at the other end of the street (facing
Nysøvej) the shed with water tower and workshop building has been
preserved. A short section of the track's route has been preserved as a
cycle path between Ny Esbjergvej and Tubæk Møllevej.
As a result
of Præstø's development in the post-war period, the Abildhøjskolen was
built in the southern part of the town in 1963. The school on
Klosternakken was then sold to Regnecentralen and functioned as a
factory for a good 10 years, after which Præstø Municipality reacquired
it and established Klosternakkeskolen with classes up to 6. grade.
Præstø Municipality
In the municipal reform in 1970, the concept
of market town disappeared, and Præstø Market Town was included together
with the surrounding parish municipalities of Allerslev, Beldringe,
Bårse, Jungshoved and Skibinge in Præstø Municipality, which in the
municipal reform in 2007 was included in Vordingborg Municipality.
The city was able to celebrate its 600th anniversary with a visit
from Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik in 2003.
In 2011,
Vordingborg city council decided to merge Præstø's two schools. After
protests, however, the closure of Klosternakkeskolen was postponed until
2014, so for a few years it provided premises for Præstø School's
teaching at intermediate level. That gave time for a group of citizens
to transform it into a private school in collaboration with an investor
who bought the building. On 7 July 2014, the building was handed over to
Præstø Private School, which started with education in grades 0-6.
grades, but added a grade each year, so there was a full superstructure
for 9th grade in 2017. The school has 201 students and is one-track with
a class size of approx. 20. The school has 2-3 tracks with just over 500
students, divided into grades 0-9. class, with school club for 0.-6.
class.
In the middle of the old town is Adelgade, where the majority of
the city's retail trade with many specialist shops is gathered. In
the western part of the city there are 4 supermarkets.
At the
end of Klosternakken is Hotel Frederiksminde, which was restored in
2006-07 and brought back to the original romantic style from the
1890s. The hotel has a gourmet restaurant, which has worked its way
up to star status since 2003. It has received 6 stars in Børsen and
is one of the 6 final nominees as "Restaurant of the Year 2014" in
The Danish Food Guide. In 2017, the restaurant received its first
star in the Michelin guide in 2017, which was repeated the following
year. The hotel is owned by the Ejendomsselskabet Stentoft A/S,
which has also bought the Klosternakkeskolen.
Præstø is home
to the supercar developer Zenvo, whose first car, the Zenvo ST1, was
presented in 2009.
Prestø Harbor
Præstø Havn was built in
1827. Listed warehouses and the old customs building remind of the
port's past as a busy traffic port, where ships sailed on a regular
schedule to and from Copenhagen with grain, timber and fuel. Small
ship traffic ceased in the 1960s, and the harbor was converted into
a marina, which now has 300 berths. Præstø Søsportscenter, a
collaboration between Vordingborg Municipality and Præstø Sailing
Club, has been responsible for the harbor since 1972. The sailing
club also runs a sailing school, and northeast of the harbor there
is a rowing club, a kayak and paddle club and a beach.
Between Grønnegade and Klosternakken, the street widens and becomes
Torvet. These cobbled streets are largely kept free of business facades
and create an authentic old town environment with many buildings worthy
of preservation and old-style streetlights.
At the end of
Klosternakken lies the Frederiksminde facility 4-5 meters above the
water level with a view of Præstø Fjord to the north, east and south. On
the Frederiksminde facility is the Frederiksminde Hotel and Restaurant,
which in 2016 received its first star in the Michelin guide, which was
defended in 2017 and 2018. The restaurant offers food in the category of
new Nordic cuisine.
Denmark's oldest working pottery was
established in Præstø in 1888, but 10 years later moved to Rødeled
outside the city.
1 km northwest of the city is the Nysø manor,
which has a museum with sculptures that the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen
executed here in the last 6 years of his life.