Kalundborg

When looking for the tourist highlights of a holiday in Kalundborg, it is easy to find yourself dwelling on the town’s history. Judging by the list of notable people who have lived in or visited Kalundborg, this town in the northwest of the island of Zealand has welcomed bishops, writers, nobles, Nobel laureates and priests.

The former fortified town of Kalundborg was even the capital of Denmark during the reign of King Valdemar Atterdag. Today, the town’s landmark is the Church of Our Lady, “Vor Frue Kirke”. Its five towers, arranged in a ground plan resembling a Greek cross, dominate the townscape. Around this church, the distinctive character of the town becomes clear. Kalundborg’s town centre has a mixed character. On the one hand, you can stroll along cobbled lanes, admire the colourful, elegant houses at its heart and linger in spacious courtyards, lost in thought; on the other, the homes are modest in size, and while you may be admiring one of the many half-timbered buildings, brick buildings are also a common sight.

Be sure to stop outside the house at No. 12 on the market square. The future Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset was born in this former dye works. She is one of the Baltic region’s few Nobel Prize winners in Literature. The granary, too, has stories to tell: it once stored the tithe, while the priest keeps watch right next door. The bishop’s house stands in Adelgade, and if you travel further, taking a trip from Kalundborg towards Lerchenborg, you will follow in the footsteps of the nobility and come upon a dreamlike castle with Baroque architecture, perhaps the northernmost rose garden in the Baltic region, and an outstanding, fairytale-like Rococo interior.

Kalundborg can tell its stories and recount its history time and again, and as a ferry port it finds new listeners every day.