Geography

Virum is a town 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...

, located north of Kongens Lyngby

Kongens Lyngby

Kongens Lyngby is the main city in the affluent Danish municipality of Lyngby-Taarbæk. Just north of Copenhagen, the city lies in the northern part of Denmark's largest island, Zealand...

 on the island of Zealand ('Sjælland') in Region Hovedstaden

Region Hovedstaden

The Capital Region of Denmark is an administrative region of Denmark established on January 1, 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which replaced the traditional counties with five larger regions. At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, cutting the...

. It is part of the northern suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

s of 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...

. Comprising mostly residential areas, Virum also has lakes, forests and recreational areas. The town is known for the local handball and soccer club, Virum-Sorgenfri. Virum also has its own high school, Virum Gymnasium.

History

The place where the modern city of Virum now lies has been populated since long before the country of Denmark came to exist. Some of the oldest mounds in the area are believed to be made as far back as year zero

Year zero

"Year zero" does not exist in the widely used Gregorian calendar or in its predecessor, the Julian calendar. Under those systems, the year 1 BC is followed by AD 1...

. These mounds were supposedly used for dividing up agricultural land, and lay in an area now known as Geels skov.

The modern town of Virum first came about during the 12th century when the town was given, by the Pope, to Bishop Absalon. The first written account of the town is in 1186, where Pope Clement III writes a letter to the Bishop, stating which towns, including Virum, he would be given.

However, Virum did not stay with Absalon for long: he soon decided to give the town to the bishop 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....

 as a friendly gesture. The Bishop of Roskilde then built a castle just outside Virum - the remains of which can still be seen today, though only as markings on the ground.

Frederiksdal Castle is located in Virum. Its main building was built from 1744-45 and was used as a summer residence for Foreign Affairs, Privy Councilor Johan Sigismund Schulin. The Schulin Family still owns the estate.

The name Virum corresponds very well to the geography of the place. In Old Danish, the name "Virum" means an open space that is easy to defend, and this is true of the geography of the place. This is also why it made a great spot for a castle to be built.

Since then, the town has grown like any other. Today it thrives, with a town square, a train station

Virum station

Virum station is a station on the Hillerød radial of the S-train network in Copenhagen, Denmark. It serves the neighbourhood of Virum north of Lyngby.-References:...

, supermarkets and much more.