Odsherred is a peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

 in the north-western part of the island Zealand (Sjælland) in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. Odsherred is stretching from the Sjællands Odde

Sjællands Odde

Sjællands Odde is a 15 km long peninsula on the northwest coast of Zealand between the Kattegat and Sejerø Bay. From the outermost point of the peninsula, Gniben, a reef juts some 10 km out into the Kattegat....

 in the north-west to the now drained fjord Lammefjord

Lammefjord

The Lammefjord is a former body of water in Denmark at the base of the Odsherred peninsula. Previously a deeply branched arm of the sea leading west from the Isefjord, most of it is now reclaimed as agricultural land...

 in the south, covering an area with a wide range of the most typical Danish landscapes such as long sandy beaches, small rolling hills and much farming. The peninsula is bound together by the railroad Odsherredsbanen, which runs through the most important towns such as Nykøbing Sjælland, Asnæs and Hørve.

History

The last part of the name herred derives from a medieval practice of dividing the country in districts herreder which created the frame for regional justice and possibly also for recruitment of soldiers to the national army and fleet. You can say that they somehow correspond to today's counties. Odsherred was only one out of many of such herreder, since every part of the country was also a part of a herred. Since the administrative importance of the herreder ended in 1919, the before so normal name began to disappear from common use all over the country. It is however still to be found in areas such as Hornsherred

Hornsherred

Hornsherred is a peninsula between Roskilde Fjord and Isefjord on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. It falls within the expanded Frederikssund municipality and includes Jægerspris and Skibby and before 1st January 2007 a part of Bramsnæs Municipality, now a part of Lejre Municipality. It is...

 and Han Herred and Odsherred.

Prehistoric times

The first habitations in Odsherred reach back to the stone age

Stone Age

The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...

. One of the most fascinating remains from that time, the entire sceleton of a giant oxe killed by prehistoric hunters, can now be seen at the Zoological museum in Copenhagen

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...

, where it is now part of the exhibition concerning prehistoric animals. Before that it was visible for guests at the now closed museum in the village of Høve. Another period whose remains can still be found in Odsherred today is the bronze age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

, since the poluation of that time buried their dead in small artificial hills in Danish called "gravhøje". These can be seen at places such as Dutter Høje close to Asnæs, Esterhøj in Høve and in the village of Stenstrup. One of the most famous Danish archeological finds, Solvognen, is also from that period and was found in a peat in central Odsherred. Solvognen is a ca. 50 cm. long statue made in bronze and gold showing horses in front of a wagon carrying the sun. It is now to be seen at the National Museum in Copenhagen, where it is one of the most spectacular artifacts.

From the Middle Ages to our time

In the Middle Ages Odsherred was fortified with the construction of the castle of Dragsholm (Dragsholm Slot), situated just there where the land between the peninsula and the rest of Zealand was most narrow. The castle was the property of the pontiff

Pontiff

A pontiff was, in Roman antiquity, a member of the principal college of priests . The term "pontiff" was later applied to any high or chief priest and, in ecclesiastical usage, to a bishop and more particularly to the Bishop of Rome, the Pope or "Roman Pontiff".-Etymology:The English term derives...

 in the town of Roskilde

Roskilde

Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....

, and created both the basis for farming and for defending of Odsherred. The strategical position of the castle can only hardly be seen today, since the Lammefjord

Lammefjord

The Lammefjord is a former body of water in Denmark at the base of the Odsherred peninsula. Previously a deeply branched arm of the sea leading west from the Isefjord, most of it is now reclaimed as agricultural land...

 is now dry and therefor does not create a natural border for troops on land, but the castle itself is still both visible and inhabitable, even though the appearance has been change over the years.

In the age of absolutism

Absolutism (European history)

Absolutism or The Age of Absolutism is a historiographical term used to describe a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites...

 most of Odsherred was the property of the Danish king. The inhabitants were paying their taxes directly to the court instead of to the baron who was now residing at Dragsholm Slot and the king did use the peninsula for hunting and foresting.

The rapid changes in the Danish society in the 19th century did also inflict Odsherred, which lost its status as royal property and even some of its status as a peninsula with the draining of Lammefjorden. In the first decades the new farming land in the now dry fjord was rocky, swampy and smelly, but since the middle of the 20th century the area has been known for its good soil and quality products such as potatoes and carrots. The waves of drainage also hit Siddingefjorden and the lakes of Klint and Højby. The latter is now reestablished as lake, creating a valuable natural habitat for various kinds of birds.

Contemporary Odsherred

Odsherred today is still today an area with a lot of farming, but other industries are also important. In the town of Fårevejle you find factories such as Stelton, famous for their design of kitchen products, and Poul Johansens Fabrikker, that constructs the machines for the fabrication of Lego

Lego

Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...

. The medicin company Lundbeck

Lundbeck

H. Lundbeck A/S is a Danish international pharmaceutical company engaged in the research and development, production, marketing, and sale of drugs for the treatment of disorders in the central nervous system , including depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease,...

 has a big factory In the village of Lumsås in the north of Odsherred. Tourism is also an important sector, with almost all of the western coast of the peninsula being covered with leisure housing. Among the most popular tourist sites can be mentioned the port of Rørvig

Rørvig

Rørvig is a small town with a population of 1,056 in the northern part of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. Rørvig is surrounded by water on three sides: to the north is the Kattegat, to the east is the channel leading into the Isefjord, and to the south is Roskilde Fjord. There is a...

, the funfair

Funfair

A funfair or simply "fair" is a small to medium sized travelling show primarily composed of stalls and other amusements. Larger fairs such as the permanent fairs of cities and seaside resorts might be called a fairground, although technically this should refer to the land where a fair is...

 Sommerland Sjælland and the beautiful nature of bjergene.

After Kommunalreformen ("The Municipality Reform" of 2007) the three former municipalities

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in Odsherred (Dragsholm

Dragsholm municipality

Until January 1, 2007, Dragsholm municipality was a municipality in West Zealand County on the northwest coast of the island of Zealand in Denmark, in a region known as Lammefjord, named after the inlet to the east of the municipality . The municipality covered an area of 152 km², and had a total...

, Nykøbing-Rørvig

Nykøbing-Rørvig municipality

Until 1 January 2007 Nykøbing-Rørvig municipality was a municipality in the former West Zealand County on the northwest coast of the island of Zealand in Denmark, at the mouth of the Isefjord. The municipality covered an area of 40 km², and had a total population of 7,610...

, and Trundholm

Trundholm municipality

Trundholm municipality was a municipality in West Zealand County on the northwest coast of the island of Zealand in Denmark, in a region known as Odsherred. The municipality covered an area of 163 km², and had a total population of 11,309...

) were merged into one, creating the Odsherred municipality

Odsherred municipality

Odsherred municipality is a municipality in Odsherred, Region Sjælland in Denmark. It covers an area of 355 km² and a total population of 33,129 and its seat is the town of Højby.-History:...

. While the reform created much debate in other parts of the country, most people in Odsherred saw this solution as natural, since the peninsula is widely regarded as a unity. There have also before the reform been much collaboration between the three municipalities and between many private societies in the area. The new Odsherred municipality will cover 355 km² and a population of ca. 33.000, but the exact administrative borders have been changing many times in the last thousand years.

At the election

Election

An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...

s held in late 2005 the mayor of Dragsholm, the social democrate Finn Madsen was given the mandate as mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

for the new Odsherred municipality.

External links

• http://www.odsherred.dk/ The Odsherred municipality (in Danish)
• http://www.odsherred.com/ The official site of tourism in Odsherred (in Danish, German and English)
• http://trundholm.odsherred.dk/ The former Trundholm municipality (in Danish)
• http://nrk.odsherred.dk/ The former Nykøbing-Rørvig municipality (in Danish)
• http://dragsholm.odsherred.dk/ The former Dragsholm municipality (in Danish)