Ribe

 

Ribe is a town in southwestern Jutland and was previously formally part of the South Jutland enclaves that belonged to the kingdom. The city has 8,317 inhabitants (2020), belongs to Esbjerg Municipality and is located in the Region of Southern Denmark. Ribe is Denmark's oldest city. It is located in a flat marsh area not far from the North Sea and has historically been characterized by floods. Ribe Å meanders through Ribe along several branches, further across the marsh and through Kammerslusen into the Wadden Sea.

Ribe was founded as a trading post during the Viking Age in the early 700s. Ansgar built the first church here in the ninth century, and in 948 it became the episcopal see. The city grew and became large and important both for the church and as a trade center, and was in the Middle Ages among the country's largest cities. When Ribe Å became impassable for ships at the end of the 17th century, however, it declined sharply, and with Esbjerg's founding in 1868, the city's industry was also challenged.

The city has several educational institutions. Ribe has preserved its old urban environment with Ribe Cathedral as its majestic landmark. Many thousands of tourists from all over the world make a pilgrimage to the city every year to experience the special atmosphere of the market town. Ribe has several museums, including two that deal with the Viking Age.

 

Cultural life

Ribe is called the "City of Storks". The storks have only visited in recent years and have not bred in the city, but the city's stork nests are still prepared every year.

Ribe was chosen as "Europe's Best Big Time Small Destination" by Global Grasshoppers in 2014.

 

Sport

Ribe Fritidscenter is a sports facility with, among other things, swimming pool and sports halls. It is the home court for the handball club Ribe-Esbjerg HH. There is also the handball club Ribe Håndboldklub.

Ribe Boldklub is the city's football club. In the 1970s it had a very strong women's team that won the Danish championships five times.

 

Museums

Ribe Art Museum is housed in a large villa that was built in the 1860s. The museum was founded in 1891 and displays Danish art from 1750 until 1950.

The Ribes Vikinger Museum was founded in 1992, and is a cultural history museum with archaeological finds that particularly focuses on the Viking Age. Together with Ribe Cathedral Museum, it is run by South West Jutland Museums.

At the open-air archaeological museum Ribe Vikingecenter at Lustrup, 2 km south of Ribe, there are, among other things, reconstructed buildings, built in consultation with South-West Jutland Museums, and the center also has a practical collaboration with the high school and primary schools, as well as several revival associations.

The Jacob A. Riis Museum is dedicated to the journalist Jacob A. Riis, who was active in New York City at the end of the 20th century. The museum opened in 2019.

In the summer of 2020, HEX opened! Museum of witch hunt, which deals with Maren Splids and the witch hunt in Ribe and Europe. The opening was postponed for 10 days, as the corona crisis had delayed the work to restore the old buildings.

At Vester Vedsted, 7 km south-west of the city, there is also the Wadden Sea Centre, which has the declared purpose of "increasing knowledge and understanding of the Wadden Sea and the marshes" through exhibitions on the area's geology and biology.

 

Buildings

Ribe is on the European route for brick Gothic.
Ribe Cathedral is among the country's oldest churches, and the only five-aisled church in Denmark. The first brick church was built at the beginning of the 12th century, while the current one was begun in 1150.
Riberhu's castle complex was built by the king in the 12th century, but today only the castle bank and a few remains of the foundation have been preserved.
Sankt Catharinæ Church was founded in 1250, and was built in connection with a Dominican monastery in the city. In the 14th century, major renovations were made, and the current church dates from around 1450. It is among the country's most complete monastery buildings.
Ribe Old Town Hall on Von Støckens Plads, a stone house built in 1496, functioned as a town hall from 1709 until 2007.
Den Gamle Arrest was built as a chaplain's residence for the assistant priest in 1546.
In Puggårdsgade is Taarnborg, a bishop's residence from the end of the 16th century and one of the best-preserved examples of Renaissance architecture in the country.
There are many buildings from the early modern era, including several restored half-timbered houses. In addition, there is Den Gamle Avlsgård in Ribe from the end of the 19th century, and two water towers: Dagmarsgade Water Tower built in 1887 which functioned until 2011 and Tangevej Water Tower built in 1907 and in operation until 1990.

 

Etymology

The name "Ribe" can be traced back to the Old Danish ripa, which means stripes or strips, as the trading post originally consisted of at least 70 narrow plots of land. They were highest in the middle with ditches in between.

The inhabitants of Ribe are called ripensers.

 

History

Foundation

Morten Søvsø connects the name with the Latin ripa, meaning river bank. The inhabitants of Ribe are called Ripense.

Two major excavations, 1973-1975, and 2008-2012, have emphasized the Frisian influence in Ribe's early history, while an incredible metal detector find in 2018, of a coin hoard at Damhus immediately south of Ribe with 262 newly minted coins from the 8th century, is still rather nondescript.

 

The Viking Age

Ribe is considered Denmark's oldest town, with a history that stretches back to between 704 and 710, where there was probably a trading post on the site - the almost exact dating is due to a dendrochronological study of timber in a well installation. The location was good for trade, as there was access to the sea via Ribe Å, and it was possible to travel overland both to the north and south, and to the east coast of Jutland. Also worth mentioning is the trade in people - Old Danish slave; slaves. No traces have been found of the slave trade, which typically only leaves a few traces in the archaeological material, so it is a difficult theme. Soil investigations have shown traces of large amounts of animal manure, and the analysis of "seeds, fruits and other macrofossils" also indicates local arable cultivation. The archaeological finds mostly consist of ceramic shards, horn splinters and pieces of glass. Some pottery has been interpreted as molds for copper objects, including belt buckles, while horns and glass indicate the production of horn combs and glass beads, which were well-known trade goods at the time. Hundreds of loom weights used in a loom, as well as the presence of bones from sheep, indicate that there has been textile production at the site. A large number of amber pieces have also been found, mostly unprocessed, but the quantity is interpreted as evidence of the processing of amber jewellery. Slag residues from iron forging and 117 whetstones, including 17 from Eidsborg, complete the picture of the complex production enterprise, which probably had its liveliest phase around the middle of the 7th century. Finally, the discovery of a total of 218 coins of the sceatta type and their stratigraphic location have led to the assumption of the presence of some kind of control of the coin base. With Claus Feveile, this control is thought to be with the Danish king, while Kirsten Bendixen, among others, seems more reserved.

As in Dorestad, traces of the early trading post have been found along the water's edge and they probably represent trading stalls. The stalls were located along the north-west bank of the stream, in a strip about 400 meters long and relatively narrow, and close to the west of this was a large burial ground. Both plant construction, coin finds and Mainzer wine barrels used as well liners show a connection with the trading places at the Rhine and Elbe estuaries, along the coast towards England and the southern English west coast.

A 'real', or written, historical context appears in the Vita Anskarii, written towards the end of the 8th century. Here the town name is mentioned in chapter 32, Latin: vico regni sui Ripa vocato similiter locum, where it is told about King Horik, who has just regained control of Schleswig - then Hedeby - and is now also willing to let a church be built in Ribe. The incident where Uffe is expelled from Schleswig takes place around the years 853-855. Evidence that a church was actually built brings the story back to the archaeological findings. The Christian burial ground in Ribe came to light in connection with the excavations in 2008-2012, on the south-eastern side of the stream, and makes it likely that there was a church towards the end of the 8th century, perhaps even in the place where the cathedral has its place today. If you follow the written source - i.e. "Vita Anskarii" - as a clue, the church in Ribe becomes the third oldest in Scandinavia, after the churches in Hedeby and Birka.

In 948, at a church meeting in Ingelheim, the three bishops are mentioned in Ribe, Aarhus, and, according to Petrus Olai, in Schleswig, so that Ribe must now be the episcopal seat, a few decades before the Jellinge stones were erected.

 

The Middle Ages (Danish Middle Ages, 1050-1537)

The ancient right of the Bishop of Ribe to half the king's income in Ribe is claimed to have been given by Canute the Great. In any case, the privilege was confirmed by Knud d. 6 in 1196, handed down to our time as the first text in Ribe Oldemother.

In 1127, King Niels' son Magnus the Strong was married to Richiza of Poland in Ribe. Ten years later, Erik Emune is killed at Urnehoved, and later buried in Ribe Cathedral.

The construction of Riberhu's castle was begun at the beginning of the 12th century and the king held court here when he visited the area. Ribe Cathedral was begun at the end of the 12th century and consecrated in 1250.

The Dominican order founded a black friars monastery in Ribe in 1228. In 1259, Christoffer the 1st died in Ribe and was buried in the cathedral. At that time, Archbishop Jacob Erlandsen had held a synod in Vejle, and there it was decided that the kingdom should be in interdict if the king mistreated or imprisoned a bishop. The archbishop was imprisoned by King Christoffer in 1259, and it is said that it was the abbot of Ryd monastery, Arnfast, who found the opportunity to poison the king. The royal tomb is located in the middle under the cathedral's large dome.

On 26 June 1269, the Ribe City Court was issued at the Danish court in Nyborg by King Erik 5. Klipping. It is precisely such royal confirmations that are later associated with the term 'marketplace' - actually 'marketplace', respectively 'marketplace right'. The city became one of the country's largest, and had a good trade in the export of oxen.

Ribe belonged to the jurisdiction of the king and the bishop of Ribe - the royally privileged citizens set their city law and in the bishop's domains the church law was administered - but appeals then went to the county council in Viborg. It also included bishop estates and royal property which lay further south - i.e. in the Duchy of Schleswig - which thus became a kind of enclave. For that reason, or perhaps because Queen Margrethe D. 1. had in her time traded for Trøjborg estate (now Trøjborg Castle Ruin), the enclaves were later known as the royal enclaves.

 

Modern times

On 3 September 1580, the city was hit by "The Great Fire", a fatal fire in which 213 houses in 11 streets burned. The fire started at the rich man Kristen Borg in Stenbogade, where, according to reports, that very evening a lot of hay had been brought into the backyard, which lay up to Torvet and over towards Peder Dovns Slippe. The hay was now believed to have spontaneously ignited, but despite an acquittal on 21 February 1581, Borg had to seek the king's protection before he was cleared of suspicion.

After the reformation of the ecclesiastical institutions in the 16th century, the city managed to maintain both trade and prosperity, but also faced other, in a way natural, challenges. Thus, during the 17th century it became difficult to keep Ribe Å navigable, and Fanø and Mandø were therefore used as loading points for the city, and during "the second great drowning" on 11-12. October 1634 the water in Ribe rose to 6.1 meters above daily water. In the cathedral, you can still see a mark where the water was 1.7 m above the floor.

One of the country's most talked about witch burnings took place in Ribe, when the tailor's daughter Maren Splids was convicted as a witch in 1641.

During the Torstensson Feud in 1643-44, the Riberhus castle complex was laid waste, and with the time of the monarchy, the town's trade with foreign countries declined in favor of Copenhagen and Aalborg. In the 18th century, the city's heyday was over, although the craft still thrived and the city gradually became known for lace and canvas production.

Newer modern times
In the middle of the 19th century, the first industrial companies came, and in 1885 the railway, when the Bramming-Tønder line was inaugurated, and two years later it was extended to the German border, and on towards Hamburg.

The establishment of Esbjerg in 1868, a brand new industrial town with direct access to the sea, had its influence on the industries in Ribe. However, there were still factories, including Crome & Goldschmidts Tekstilfabrik, Sct. Nicolaj Gade who had approx. 120 employed at the end of the 19th century, and in the middle of the 20th century Ribe Jernstøberi had 520 employees. A good part of the city's workforce was employed as civil servants, since Ribe, right up until the structural reform in 2007, housed the administration of Ribe Municipality, Ribe Stift, and Ribe County. With the neoliberal currents in the state administration, more jobs also followed for the industries in the service sector. The town then became part of Esbjerg Municipality.

 

Infrastructure and transport

To the northwest, Primary Route 24 goes towards Esbjerg, and to the northeast, Primary Route 32 goes to Kolding. To the south, Primary Route 11 goes towards barrels

The ring road is a bypass west of the city, which is part of route 11. It is proposed to establish a bypass east of the city. To the east, primary route 24 goes towards Gram.

A large part of the city's old street network is preserved in the center of the city.

Ribe Station is a stop on the Bramming-Tønder line. In 1985, Ribe Nørremark Station opened in the northern part of the city, where the train also stops.

The city has two water towers; Dagmarsgade Water Tower was built in 1887 and operated until 2011 as well as Tangevej Water Tower which was built in 0907 and which closed in 1990.

Among the city's old streets are Badstuegade, Bispegade, Fiskergade, Hundegade, Præstegade, Puggaardsgade, Sct. Nicolaj Gade, Skibbroen, Stenbogade and Sønderportsgade as well as Torvet.

 

Profession

One of the city's large manufacturing companies is the Mineralvandsfabrikken Frem, which was established in 1949. In 2016, it was taken over by Bryggeriet Fuglsang.

The record studio Hansen Studio is located in Ribe. It is run by the Danish producer Jacob Hansen, and is mainly used for recording rock and heavy metal bands. Among the bands that have recorded albums here are i.a. Dizzy Mizz Lizzy and Volbeat.

The city's retail trade is mainly centered around Torvet and the pedestrian section Overdammen, Mellemdammen and Nederdammen.

Ribe has a number of hotels, including Ribe Hotel and Hotel Dagmar. The latter is part of Danske Hoteller A / S. The Danhostel chain runs a youth hostel in the city.

The city enjoys its close location to the German border, and is therefore visited by many Germans.