Spodsbjerg is a port town on Langeland with 214 inhabitants (2020), located 9 km east of Rudkøbing. The city belongs to Langeland Municipality and is located in the Region of Southern Denmark. Spodsbjerg belongs to Longelse Parish. Longelse Church is located 3 km southwest of Spodsbjerg.
Spodsbjerg Badehotel was built in 1913 and has 6 rooms. Spodsbjerg
Tourist Marina was opened in 1994 and has 180 berths. There are
Dagli'Brugs in town.
Spodsbjerg has a ferry route to Tårs on
Lolland with hourly service most of the day. In 1975, the route replaced
the old route to Nakskov, which took twice as long. From Spodsbjerg
Ferry Harbor there is a motorway to Rudkøbing. It is part of primary
route 9. Spodsbjerg is the only town and port on the east side of
Langeland, out to the Langeland Belt. The pilotage service in the city
serves the ship traffic on Route Tango, the transit route through
internal Danish waters.
Ferry operation
There has been a ferry to Lolland
since the Middle Ages, where farmers operated small-scale fishing
from the coast. The crossing is first mentioned in writing in 1560,
when "Spodsbjerg Skibsbro" was restored. It then fell into
disrepair, but was restored in 1578, and in 1590 it was rebuilt
after ice caps had destroyed it. By a transfer in 1787, the ferry
company had i.a. "a small oak boat to carry out", so the ferry has
not always been able to land.
The two ferrymen lived in
Gammel Spodsbjerg 1 km south of the ferry terminal. They each had
their own house, but they were later built together into "Den gamle
Færgegård". From here, passengers had to walk 1 km on the sandy
beach, which could be flooded at high tide. Then they had to wade or
be carried on the backs of the ferrymen out to the small boat that
was to sail them out to the ferry itself. Getting a horse-drawn
carriage or cattle by ferry was extremely difficult without harming
the animals. Since the beginning of the 19th century, there was
lively discussion about who should rectify these miserable
conditions, but in 1835 landowner Hastrup on Hjortholm offered to
build a new ferry yard and acquire new ferries, etc., if the public
would pay for the bridge and harbor.
In 1839, the General
Post Office began to charge a bridge fee for the new ferry bridge,
and a little south of it, the new ferry yard was completed, where
Færgegårdens Camping is now located. The road network was also
expanded, and around 1870 a country road came all the way to the
ferry. On October 8, 1869, "Det forenede Dampskibsselskab for
Langeland og Lolland" put the first steamship on the route to
Nakskov. It was taken over in 1884 by Sydfyenske Dampskibsselskab.
In 1899 Spodsbjerg is described as follows: "Spodsbjærg, Ferry
place with crossing to Taars, Laaland (by the ferry bridge, located
in Tullebølle S., there is up to 11 F. Water), Steamship connection
with Nakskov, Strandkontrollørbolig, Telephone station (Telegraph
cable between Spodsbjærg and Todsbjærg decommissioned 1899). "
The ferry berth was improved in 1960 and again in 1981.
Spodsbjerg was one of the terminals on the
Langelandsbanen (1911-62). In the summer, bathing trains ran from
Rudkøbing to Spodsbjerg every day. The 7-8 carriages with bathers
were disconnected and used for changing. At the end of the day they
were driven back to Rudkøbing. The monumental station building,
which also housed the city's small police station, has been
preserved at Spodsbjergvej 351.
In 1937, a fishing port was
built for the approx. 25 cutters. In the 1940s there were 2
merchants, 2 butchers and 2 bakers in the town.