Jarmers Tower
Encyclopedia
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
. Jarmers Tower represents the remains of the original eleven towers which were once joined together as a part of the city’s medieval fortification.
History
The tower was built in the beginning of the 16th century. The tower is named after Jaromar II of Rügen (ca. 1218-1260), FürstFürst
Fürst is a German title of nobility, usually translated into English as Prince.The term refers to the head of a principality and is distinguished from the son of a monarch, who is referred to as Prinz...
of the Wends
Wends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...
, who in 1259 had attacked and penetrated the wooden palisades which had formed the fortification surrounding Copenhagen. Jaromar acted in support of Jakob Erlandsen
Jakob Erlandsen
Jakob Erlandsen was a Danish Archbishop of Lund and the central character of the first great church conflict in Denmark....
, Archbishop of Lund, in his conflict with Danish King Christoffer I. King Christoffer had strongly resisted the archbishop’s efforts of adjusting the legislation and juridical right of the Danish church with canonical law. After an incarceration of the Bishop, Jaromar ravaged Zeeland
Zeeland
Zeeland , also called Zealand in English, is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about...
during 1259 and broke through Copenhagen's fortifications in the place where Jarmers Tower was later built. Wends warriors destroyed the city by burning down most of the houses and ended up by demolishing the castle of Bishop Absalon
Absalon
Absalon was a Danish archbishop and statesman, who was the Bishop of Roskilde from 1158 to 1192 and Archbishop of Lund from 1178 until his death. He was the foremost politician and churchfather of Denmark in the second half of the 12th century, and was the closest advisor of King Valdemar I of...
on Slotsholmen
Slotsholmen
Slotsholmen is an island in the harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark, and part of Copenhagen Inner City. Bishop Absalon constructed the city's first castle on the island in 1166-67 at the site where Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish Parliament lies today...
.
Modern usage
The tower was built of large, red monk bricks and ornamented with a reticular pattern of dark burned bricks. Between 1880-1885 the rampart area around Jarmers Tower was excavated and the moat leveled in connection with the Nordic Exhibition of 1888. Jarmers Tower was subsequently restored and preserved as a ruin. The plazaPlaza
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...
built around the excavation where Nørre Voldgade becomes H.C. Andersens Boulevard has been named Jarmers Plads.