Perched at the northernmost tip of Denmark, Skagen is a town where history, art and nature converge. It was established in 1413 as a fishing village for the lucrative herring industry but as that industry has waned, tourism is now the towns key income earner.
Skagen encountered a catastrophic sand drift in the 16th century through to the early 19th century. It was caused by the fact that to keep warm, the people of Skagen felled the trees for timber and of course that caused a loss of vegetation that held the sand in place. Evidence of this is the 14th century buried church. It is said that the congregation had to bring shovels to church services to dig their way into the church. The church was abandoned in the 18th century with just the tower remaining.
Philip did another bike ride today that took him past the buried church.
His group also stopped at the oldest lighthouse in Skagen. The drum at the end of the log was filled with firewood and set alight to warn ships of the dangerous oceans.
Because of where Skagen is situated it is a very windy place. Philip and his cycling group came back to their bikes after a walk to find the majority of them had blown over!
I did another walking tour today. I persevere with them as you do gain a lot of information but honestly, some of the people should not be doing a walking tour. I have seen many a person with a wheelie walker doing these tours and have lost count of the ones with walking sticks. It slows the whole walk down. Anyway, enough groaning…
We walked through the old town that is quite close to the ocean. The smell of fish oil is almost overwhelming. Our guide tells us that Skagen has one of the world's largest fish oil factories, hence the smell. We walk down narrow winding streets where we find the iconic homes that are painted bright yellow with red shingle roofs. The white painted trim is a lovely contrast. I'm not surprised to see another abandoned railway line. Why have we deserted rail in favour of diesel road transport? How on earth can that be cost effective. Beggars belief.
And then we come across this home where the car is almost taller than the house. Must have been built for a very small person.
It doesn't take us long to reach the world renowned Skagen Museum that houses the largest collection of the Skagen Painters works. Skagen became a haven in the late 19th century for a collective of Scandinavian artists who were drawn to the unique luminous quality of the light in Skagen. We spend around an hour inside the museum but rather than the artwork I am drawn to a photography exhibition where old photographs have been painstakingly restored. It is interesting to see the paintings that have been drawn from photographs. Some of the photographs have been taken from old negatives and the quality of these photos is almost like they were taken yesterday.
After the museum we continue our walk towards the city centre. We pass by the oldest known house in Skagen, again with the iconic yellow and red colour scheme.
The tour group heads towards the town centre that is bustling with people on this Monday morning, unlike our walk through the old town where not a single person was seen. Our walk ends at yet another church. This one is built across the road from a pub because our guide says it is better to be sitting inside the church and thinking about the pub than sitting in the pub and thinking about the church 😂
She also told us that the walls inside the church once had murals on the walls but the congregation were so engrossed in them that they weren't listening to the priest. The walls are now painted white so the priest has their undivided attention….
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