Stege is the main town on Møn with 3,786 inhabitants (2020) located in Stege Parish. The city is completely merged with Lendemarke. The district is located west of Stege Harbor separated by a short bridge over the narrow strait, which is also the entrance from Stege Bay to the north. Stege is located in Vordingborg Municipality and belongs to Region Zealand.
Origin
Stege (old form Stickeburgh, Stigheborgh,
Stikee, Stighe, Steckæ and Stæcke, as early as 1268, however, the
form Stege occurs), presumably from Old Norse stik (pole that is
framed in the water, and stika to block sailing by framing poles) is
very old and owes its rise to the permanent castle Stegehus or
Stegeborg, which lay to the south of the town at the entrance to the
noret at the later harbor, and which may have been built by Valdemar
the Great.
The castle is mentioned several
times in history, such as 1247, when Erik Plovpenning held his
half-brother Duke Knud of Blekinge prisoner here, from which
captivity the Lübeckers freed him the same or the following year.
With the help of the Lübeckers, Mr. Henrik Emeltorp in possession of
the castle in 1254, which he soon had to give up again. In 1288 the
outlaws attacked the castle in vain, when Prince Vitslav of Rügen
had it (and Møn) on loan; In 1290, a German nobleman Hinze
Falkenhagen is mentioned as chief at Stegeborg. In 1310, Erik Menved
redeemed Stegeborg and fortified it again, but from 1329 it was
almost uninterrupted for 30 years in the hands of German mortgagees.
Then Valdemar Atterdag conquered it in 1358. He must have rebuilt it
and provided it with 3 towers and strong ring walls. In 1438, one of
Erik of Pomerania's cousins had it on loan. Among the royal chiefs
in the Middle Ages could be mentioned Chiefs at Stegehus were
Henning Moltke 1323, Fikke Moltke 1362, Councilor Jens Rud
1396-1401, Valdemar Bydelsbak 1419, Count Vitslav of Eberstein, Erik
Aagesen Thott 1457-64, Laurens Axelsen Thott 1465, Axel Valkendorf
1480, Vincens Iversen Dyre 1485, Mogens Gøye 1500 and Jørgen Rud
1503 and Anders Bille (from 1505), who is known for his brave
defense of Stege, as the Lübeckers, after landing on the island in
1510 and after destroying the market town Borre , attacked Stege
himself and the castle; he added to them such a great defeat that
they had to flee the island.
When Stege got township rights
is not known. The first known privilege is Erik Klippings of 14 May
1268, in which he gave the citizens of Stege town permission to use
the forests that then surrounded the town, as well as the grazing at
the same place according to the right they had previously received
in his grandfather Valdemar IIs time; later, the town's privileges
were confirmed in 1321, 1447, 1483, 1572, 1590 and 1696, among other
places. fortification of ramparts and tombs. It had good trade and
shipping in Germany, and it took, as it seems, a living part in the
herring fishery in the Sound and had fishing villages at Skanør and
Falsterbo. It has been in great favor with the kings in the 15th
century. Thus, in a letter of 16 April 1447 (the same date as he
confirms the city's privileges), Christoffer of Bavaria tells the
city that the citizens may buy unhindered in Zealand and elsewhere
in the kingdom grain, ax, cattle and other edible goods. In 1450
Christian I announced that when the common people and peasants who
build and live on Møn trade in Germany, this is forbidden, "as our
market town Stege is thereby particularly humiliated and corrupted",
for "Peasants escape Ager og Eng og Købmændene af Købmandsskab ".
This ban was enforced several times later. But Stege also had its
days of adversity, thus several fierce fires, especially in 1457,
when almost the whole town must have been burned, and the violent
plague on Møn 1484, which also greatly affected Stege. In the Middle
Ages, the town had a church in addition to Sankt Hans, namely Sankt
Gertruds, which was located to the south of the town near the castle
wall, and which according to some accounts must have been demolished
after the Reformation as superfluous, after others only destroyed by
the Swedes in 1658 ( its materials were to be used to renovate St.
Hans Church). In the Middle Ages, the city had a Skt. Knuds Gilde.
During the Count's Feud, Stegeborg was destroyed. Already when Anders Bille immediately joined Frederik I's ascension to the throne, the relationship between the sheriff and Stege citizens, who held Christian II, became bad. When, after fortifying Stegeborg and securing it as far as possible against surprise, on the arrival of the Lybian fleet to the Danish waters in 1534, he left Møn to go to Copenhagen (which he did not reach, however, as Count Christoffer had already reached Køge, so that Anders had to seek refuge on his farm Søholm on Stevns, which he soon had to hand over, after which he went over to Christian II's party), Stege joined the whole island to the captured king's party, and the citizens of the town became by cunning lords over the castle, which they blew up and in a few days completely collapsed on the barn and the cattle houses near. When Count Christoffer came to the town, he rewarded Stege for his allegiance to Christian II by giving it a letter on Vesthale and Vesthale Fang (Ulvshale and Hegneden Skove) in 1535, but later the authors of the castle's destruction were executed, and Stege town also got it feel when Christian III's party came to power. The castle was never rebuilt, although by royal letters of 22 May 1557 and 19 April 1558 it is seen to have been Chr. III's intention. The barn remained standing until the end of the 17th century. As late as the end of the 18th century, one could see the rampart with the remains of walls and towers, but by the beginning of the 19th century, the last remnant must have been destroyed.
The town is also seen in recent times to have enjoyed
the favor of the kings, so Frederick II in 1582 ordered that the
peasants should bring their goods to Stege, and in 1585 he forbade
foreign merchants to lie in Grønsund and shop, Stege town to harm.
In 1632, Christian IV left the town of Rødsten exaggerated. The town
also had better conditions after the island's second market town,
Borre, as mentioned above, was destroyed by the Lübeckers and never
from that time came up again. However, it went back with Stege,
probably especially due to the decline in fishing. To this were
added the wars, by which it suffered much, both the Seven Years' War
and especially the Karl Gustav wars, when the enemy plundered it in
1658 and tortured it as well as the whole island, during the
occupation 1659-60.
In 1557, Stegehus and Møn were granted to
Niels Truidsen Ulfstand to Barsebæk, who lost it due to debt in
1563, and only briefly regained it in 1566.
A remarkable
trial took place in Stege in 1567. The new priest Iver Bertelsen
betrothed himself to the widow of the former priest to secure the
office, but would not marry her. He even omitted the exorcism from
the baptismal rite. He was therefore sentenced to death; however,
the sentence was later changed to life imprisonment and forfeiture
of property.
In 1634, Corfitz Ulfeldt became sheriff at
Stegehus. When Ulfeldt was appointed to the National Council in
1636, he married Leonora Christina and lived on Møn 1636-1637.
In 1664, Møn was mortgaged to the
Dutchman Gabriel Marselis, but the king kept Stege By.
In
1672 it had 656 inhabitants. Conditions became even worse, if
possible, in the unfortunate years 1685-97 for the whole island,
when it was the headquarters of the horse farm. A large part of the
city wall and 2 city gates were demolished under Samuel Christoph
von Plessen 1685-1697, who used the materials for the construction
of Nygårde (now Marienborg). Also in the 18th century, the city led
a languishing existence, often haunted by fires, thus in 1740, 1754.
1761 and especially May 22, 1774, when 112 of its 183 farms and
houses burned. In 1769 there were 791 inhabitants. In the 19th
century, it experienced renewed prosperity.
In Stege, 2 markets were held annually: 1 in March and 1 in October
(horses and cattle).
In Stege, 2 newspapers were published:
"Møens Avis" and "Møens Folkeblad".
At the turn of the century,
the town had factories and industrial facilities: 2 iron foundries, 2
white beer breweries, 2 sawmills, 2 book printers and 1 mineral water
factory.
Stege's population was increasing in the late 1800s but
stagnated in the early 1900s: 1,808 in 1850, 1,934 in 1855, 1,932 in
1860, 1,960 in 1870, 1,931 in 1880, 1,969 in 1890, 2,245 in 1901, 2,230
in 1906 and 2,250 in 1911.
According to means of livelihood, the
population in the city was divided into the following groups, including
both breadwinners and dependents: 239 lived from intangible business,
719 from craft and industry, 539 from trade and turnover, 70 from
shipping, 24 from fishing, 129 from agriculture, 13 from horticulture,
while 96 were distributed among other occupations, 53 lived on their
means, 16 enjoyed alms, 3 were in prison, and 68 were in a mental
asylum. In the rural district, the distribution was the same year: 3
lived from intangible business, 80 from crafts and industry (of which 70
from woodcarving), 40 from agriculture, 6 from shipping, 14 from
fishing, 14 from other professions and 5 from their means. According to
a census in 1906, the population was 2,230, of which 197 supported
themselves by non-material activities, 137 by agriculture, forestry and
dairying, 16 by fishing, 823 by crafts and industry, 559 by trade and
more, 201 by transport, 90 were shopkeepers, 160 lived on public support
and 47 on other or unspecified business.
The interwar period
During the interwar period, Stege's population was almost stagnant: in
1916 2,186, in 1921 2,231, in 1925 2,363, in 1930 2,549, in 1935 2,449,
in 1940 2,459 inhabitants. But at the same time there was growth in the
suburb Lendemarke in Stege County, where a number of people with work in
Stege settled.
At the census in 1930, Stege had 2,549
inhabitants, of which 224 supported themselves by non-material
activities, 843 by craft and industry, 525 by trade etc., 166 by
transport, 226 by agriculture, forestry and fishing, 202 by housework,
294 were out of business and 69 had not declared the source of income.
The post-war period
After World War II, Stege continued its
stagnant population development. In 1945 there were 2,623 inhabitants in
the market town, in 1950 2,697 inhabitants, in 1955 2,662 inhabitants,
in 1960 2,620 inhabitants and in 1965 2,590 inhabitants. Lendemarke grew
in the country parish.
Stege Municipality had Denmark's first female mayor, Eva Marie Madsen
(B), who was mayor 25 January 1950 – 14 March 1950.
When Møn
Municipality had to build a new school in the town in the mid-1990s,
marks were found during the excavation which were identified by
archaeologists from the Sydsjællands Museum as several house plots from
the Peasant Stone Age. The houses stood out clearly in the sandy
underground, where you could see traces of walls and the large posts
that supported the roof. Traces of a hearth were also found in one of
the houses.
Morten Flyvebom and Lars Larsen from Møn have
subsequently reconstructed one of the houses. The house is somewhat
dilapidated today, but still gives an impression of how it looked in the
Stone Age.
Stege has a number of small and medium-sized companies. One of the largest workplaces in the city is the biscuit and cake manufacturer Bisca, which has around 460 employees. Since 2006, the entire company has been gathered in Stege.
The city's ground plan dates from the Middle Ages, and
Mølleporten was one of three city gates in the old fortress. It was
first mentioned in 1531 in Stege By's book, but is probably from the
end of the 15th century. Next to the mill gate is the Empiregården,
which is a merchant's farm from 1813, which has housed the Møns
Museum since 1958.
In addition, there is also Thorsvang -
Denmark's Collectors Museum, which has a large and versatile
collection from the beginning of the 20th century. It was
inaugurated in 2013.
Nær Stege Kirke is an old Latin school
with masonry from the 15th century. On the square is the
Kammerrådgården, which is a yellowwashed merchant's farm from the
1770s built for Kammerråd Puttfercken. In 1881, the Carøe merchant
family took over the property. Opposite is the former pharmacy,
which is a neoclassical building from around 1799. The former town
hall on the square is in Renaissance style according to drawings by
M.G.B. Bindesbøll from 1854. On the square is also a building which,
as the facade reveals, was formerly the seat of Møns Spare- og
Laanekasse, but which today houses a law firm, run by lawyer Mogens
Jensen.
At the harbor is the merchant farm Hages Gård from
1799 and a customs booth from 1848 (now tourist information). On the
western side of the harbor towards Lendemarke, De Danske
Sukkerfabrikker opened a factory in 1884, whose buildings today
house a number of different smaller companies.
Stegeborg was
excavated in the 1980s in connection with construction in the harbor
area, but there is nothing to be seen of Stegeborg today, while the
ramparts around Stege have been preserved as Denmark's only medieval
city rampart. Stege lies on a isthmus, and the rampart shields the
town on the landward side to the east from coast to coast.
Bio Stege is the city's cinema, which was founded in 1907. It has a
single floor.