Looking back to Skagen, Denmark

I blame it on the sunny and warm weather and the long hours of daylight. I have not written any posts for nearly a week because our days have been filled with fun and by the time we returned to the boat late in the evening each day, I did not have the energy to write. Let's go back to where the last post left off, Skagen There may be a Part 2, but I will at least get started.

Skagen is the northernmost town in Denmark, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula. It is the country's fourth largest port and its economy is based on tourism, fishing and ship maintenance. A quiet place with a declining population, it is charming with its cumin-colored houses, trimmed in white and topped with red tile roofs, situated behind white picket fences and within lovely gardens. Originally, these buildings were painted with a mixture of lime and ochre.

Typical houses in Skagen

Typical houses in Skagen

The city began as a fishing village in the Middle Ages, known for its herring industry. It was a sleepy place although it was the largest fishing community in Denmark by the 19th century. With its seascapes, the local milieu, and stunning evening light, it attracted Scandinavian artists from the late 1870s through the early 1900s. They became known as the Skagen Painters. Many had studied in Paris and were influenced by French Impressionism as well as Realist Movements and the Barbizon school. (I visited a museum with their works the next day.)

In addition to its community and cultural history, Skagen is captivating because of the landscape, which is a massive expanse of sand dunes, mostly covered with grasses and brush as well as a few forest areas. The geology of the area is quite intriguing.

Northeast Denmark formed at the end of last ice age, between 12,800 and 10,000 years ago. When the ice retreated and sea level changed, the northern most part of what is now northeast Denmark was along an approximate east-west line running west from what is now the city of Frederikshavn, 45 kilometers south of the current tip of Jutland. 

Over the past 7,000 years, a continuous process of deposition of materials from the sea have created Skagen Odde, the distinctive peninsula separating the Skagerrak and the Kattegat seas. Powerful and prevailing waves as well as longshore currents continuously erode the west coast of Jutland and transport, as on a massive conveyor belt, an estimated 1 million cubic meters of sand and smooth gravel and small stones north-eastward, extending the peninsula 3 to 4 meters per year. Another geological force is land uplift or isostatic rebound after the last ice age. This steady uplift has outpaced rising sea levels, creating a natural regression that has left older beach ridges and peat deposits raised up to 13 meters above current sea level. 

Having settled in at the Sejlkub Skagen (Skagen Sail Club) on Sunday, June 21, with the help of John (a middle school teacher), whom we met in Iceland, and other club members, Peter and I walked passed the shipyards, where many fishing ships from Greenland were docked for repairs. Repairs and maintenance on large trawlers such as these employs about 600 people in town. Away from the wharf, we passed lovely homes, reaching the center of the town, which was quiet, and found a place for dinner.

Greenland trawlers

On Monday, June 22, we woke up to find a gigantic cruise ship docked nearby. We enjoyed a lazy morning on the boat, catching up on things, and then I left Peter on board to explore and visit the the town and a museum. Unlike the previous evening, with a couple thousand people from the cruise ship wandering around, the cafes and restaurants were full and the shops and galleries were open for business. Also, it was the last day of school for graduating 16-year-olds from John's school and three human-powered trailers rolled by with celebrating kids and music.

I visited the Skagens Museum, which has an extensive collection of works by members of the Skagen Painters, who lived, permanently or part-time, in the area in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Skagen Museum was founded in 1908 by Michael Ancher, Peter Severin Krøyer and Laurits Tuxen, artists that were previously unknown to me, in the dining room of the Brøndums Hotel, owned by the borther of Anna Archer, the only member of the group from Skagen. The artists' colony itself began in the 1870s, with painters spending the summers in Skagen, using the Brøndums' house for accommodation and frequent gatherings. (The dining room was moved to the museum when the last family member died.) Michael Ancher built his own home in Skagen and married Anna Brøndum in 1880. All the painters who came quickly became a close-knit community, with some of the other male artists also marrying local women. I was astounded by the beauty and mastery of the works on display at the museum and wonder why the artists are not well known outside Scandinavia. 

Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach, 1906, by P.S. Krøyer

Skagen Museum garden

Brøndums Hotel dining room with paintings and decorations on the wood by the artists

Our friend John, a very helpful, knowledgeable and cheerful man, returned to collect us at 3 p.m. and drove us around the port, providing us with a lot of information about the various industries there. Then we passed some landmarks, which we visited later on our own; went to the nearby seaside town of Højen, where he grew up; and continued to his house, a beautifully designed and decorated place with a large, bright and welcoming garden, where we had drinks and chatted.

Later that long afternoon, Peter and I took a long walk west from the docks, going through a few residential blocks before reaching Damstederne Strand. We strolled along this beach and up on the sand dunes right above it until we passed Klitgaarden, the summer private residence of King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine. The villa was built in 1914 and designed in the National Romantic Style by the renowned architect Ulrik Plesner, a Danish architect from Jutland. He lived and designed buildings in Skagen for extended periods of time and designed houses as well as the town's railway station, hospital, bank, harbormaster's residence, and post office. 

Klitgaarden with anchored ships on the water

We climbed to the top of Stokmilen, a 14-meter high, striking dune above the beach, from which there are expansive views of the peninsula and the sea. From there, we spotted Den Tilsandede Kirke, the sand-buried church dating back to the 14th century, one of the oldest buildings in Skagen. Sand began drifting in from the Råbjerg Mile around 1600, and in the spring of 1775, the church door had to be dug free for the congregation to attend services. This continued for 20 years, until in 1795 the church was closed by royal decree and the body of the church was demolished. All that is visible now of the church and the now-buried village is the whitewashed church tower, which is maintained as a navigational landmark.

Stokmilen

View from part way up Stokmilen 

View of Den Tilsandede Kirke from Stokmilen 

Luckily it was a clear day so we were able to orient ourselves by the sun as we made our way to the tower up dunes and down into swales, through open grassland and scrubby forests, losing sight of our destination many times. Inside, we ascended to the top of the tower, where barn swallows zoom in and out of the windows and nest in the rafters. After that, we returned to town and our boat around 10 p.m., near sunset, passing a windmill, Kragskov Mølle, built in 1870, on the edge of town.

Exterior of the dome of the vestibule of Den Tilsandede Kirke

Den Tilsandede Kirke

Rafters inside the tower

Rolling landscape around Skagen

Windmill on the edge of town

Once again, it's late. We are now on Lake Vanern in Sweden, but I am trying to catch up and write in chronological order. It's 11 p.m. The sun about an hour ago, but twilight continues for at least another hour. Nevertheless, it's bedtime, so I will have to write more tomorrow.