Let's Discover Denmark - your travel guide to Denmark with useful information for visitors and local residents alike.  Make the most of your time in Denmark with our information on travel, tours, sightseeing, hotels, and holidays.

Let's Discover Funen (or Fyn), in Denmark

Funen  is the third-largest island of Denmark covering 2,984 km².  Only Zealand (Sjælland) and Vendsyssel-Thy are bigger. Funen is located in the central part of the country and is part of the administrative region of  Syddanmark. The island had a population of 447,000 people in 2006. The main city on Funen is Odense. The city's shipyard is called Odense Steel Shipyard.

The island ies between southern Jutland and Zealand and is bounded by the Little Belt (little strait) to the west and the Great Belt to the east. Funen is linked to Zealand, Denmark's largest island, by the Great Belt Bridge which carries both trains and cars. The Great Belt Bridge really two bridges; a low bridge connecting Funen to the small island of Sprogø in the middle of the Great Belt and a long suspension bridge the rest of the way to Zealand.

The fertile clay loam soil supports much agriculture, especially grain and sugar beet, dairy, pig and cattle farming as well as market gardening.

Historical and pre-historical remains abound. There are stone age burial chambers as well as numerous Viking relics.  These include the famous Ladby-skibet (19 km east of Odense), the burial ship of a 10th century Viking chieftain, and a “ship monument”, a grave enclosed by standing stones in the form of a ship, to the west of Odense.

West of Emmelev is the village of Kappendrup. The burial mound and the barrow “Kappendrup Church” are placed in the back yard of the houses Kappendrup 55-63. Though the name is hinting differently the place has been established as being from the period 3900-1700 BCE.

Ladby-skibet or Ladbyskibet (Ladby Ship)  is a Viking ship burial site, a little north of the village of Ladby, 19 km east of Odense. In 1934 the mound containing the Viking ship grave was excavated. While you cannot see the ship itself, which decayed a long time ago, the impression of the planks in the ground is clearly visible, as well as the actual spikes that held the ship together. After the excavation was finished, a concrete dome was created over the site for protection and to mimic the way it would have looked before the excavation. This is the grave of a Viking chieftain, buried around the first half of the 10th century. The Viking ship would have originally been about 21.5 meters long, 3 meters wide and 1 meter high.  It had 15 oars on each side, and was fitted for a mast with sail. The ship was not built specifically for the burial.  Indeed it may have been the chieftain's own ship as it shows signs of having been repaired. The chieftain was buried along with all the things he would need in the afterlife, including a ship, a variety of weapons, 11 horses and several dogs, some of whose skeletons are still present inside the ship's remains. The horses were quite small, similar in size to today's Icelandic horses. The Viking age is usually defined as the period between 800-1050 CE, so this site is from the middle of the Viking period. To get there from village of Ladby, 4km southwest of Kerteminde, turn north onto Vikingevej, a one-lane road through fields that ends after 1.2km at the Ladbyskibet car park. You enter through the little museum from where it’s a few minutes’ walk along a field path to the mound.

Egeskov Castle (GPS: 55.176389°N, 10.489444°E) is located to the south of the island. Commissioned by Frands Brockenhuus in 1554, this 14th century stately home is probably Europe's best preserved example of a renaissance water castle. The castle is constructed on oak piles and located securely in a small lake. Originally, the only access was by means of a drawbridge. According to legend, it took an entire forest of oak trees to build the foundation, hence the name Egeskov meaning “oak forest”.  The reason for all this becomes clear when we realist that the 14th century was a time of great political upheaval in Denmark. Indeed this was the time of the a civil war which led to the Protestant Reformation.

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