Nordby

Facts

The village that never became a market town

By Erland Porsmose , Museumsleder, dr. phil. (10 stories)

The village of Nordby on the island of Samsø is considered by many as one of the country's most noteworthy. And rightly so. The well preserved village centre around the pond is home to low, semi-attached, half-timbered houses and crooked, narrow streets. Samsø is somewhat larger than Ærø, but unlike that island, it was never granted a market town. Nordby, with its charming mix of town, village and fishing village, was the closest Samsø ever came to one. There were some 47 small fisherman’s houses and 40 other houses in 1682. Two centuries later, the number had risen to 120 homes all clustered in the village centre.

Public place

Selected entry

Charmed by Nordby

Story written by Erland Porsmose

Time / Periode 1682

1 comment 0 recommendations

Author Achton Friis and painter Johannes Larsen published their three-volume work The Islands of the Danes" in the 1920s. They were seduced by Samsø’s fertile earth. In May 1922, Nordby was one giant blossoming orchard. And even though its population had fallen slightly as farmers moved away, it was still possible in some places "to walk from one farm house roof to the next," as Friis put it. Larsen painted the town’s blossoming orchards and houses by the pond, and he took his time to note the variety of unique weathervanes that topped the roofs. He also designed the town's large stone wells, and the uncommonly festive, Medieval-inspired bell tower, built in 1857 as a way to alert the people of the town. "