Roskilde Attractions

Zealand

Roskilde, which in the Middle Ages was at times a royal seat and a diocesan town, is situated in the east of Zealand on Roskilde Fjord, which bites deep into the island. Within the town there are several natural springs, the largest being the "Maglekilde", which delivers 15,000 liters/3,300 gallons of water every 24 hours.

Roskilde can be reached from Copenhagen by train or car in about half an hour.

History

Roskilde is one of the oldest towns in Denmark. As early as 960 a wooden church stood on the northern edge of the terrace from which the land slopes down to the fjord. Harald Bluetooth, the ruler who converted Denmark to Christianity, is believed to have founded this church; this, at least, is the tradition, although there is no real evidence to support it. Nevertheless it is a fact that in 1030 a start was made on rebuilding the church in stone. In the 11th C. Roskilde became a royal and episcopal residence and in the following centuries it enjoyed its period of greatest prosperity.

It was principally the center of an ecclesiastical area, possessing great power and wealth, particularly after King Valdemar arranged the appointment of a young Paris-educated priest as bishop. This was the great Bishop Absalon of the Hvide lineage (1128-1201). In 1168 Valdemar presented to his favorite the town and castle of Havn; thus Absalon became the virtual founder of Copenhagen, then a fishing village of little consequence. Thereafter the focus of power lay in Roskilde. The situation changed, however, with the Reformation, when 11 parish churches and all the town's religious houses were closed, and the economic and intellectual life of Roskilde declined. The town later recovered some of its importance, and in 1658 the peace treaty between Denmark and Sweden was signed in Roskilde Cathedral. By this treaty Denmark lost all its possessions beyond the Kattegat and the Øresund. Much of the old town was destroyed in a series of fires during the 18th C.

The economic revival of Roskilde did not begin until the mid-19th C., after the construction of a railway link with Copenhagen. Roskilde is now one of the major industrial, educational and scientific areas of Denmark, with the Roskilde University Center (RUC), concentrating on the social sciences, and an atomic research center at Riso, to the north of the town.

Townscape

The Cathedral, one of Denmark's great national monuments, is the central feature of the town, which extends northwards to Roskilde Fjord and southwards to the expressway (21 or 23).