Ribe

Facts

Denmark's oldest town

By Søren Bitsch Christensen, Stadsarkivar (21 stories)

With 1300 years under its belt, Ribe is Denmark's oldest and best preserved town. Only Copenhagen and Elsinore have as many listed buildings. The town was founded on the northern bank of the river Ribe. In the 13th century the town's weight crossed to the other bank, however. The street grid from back then is still very evident. The surrounding open landscape gives the town a clear profile with the cathedral towers as a hallmark. The streets are a harmonious landscape of half-timbered gabled terraced houses and traditional longhouses. For example, the adjoining gable house and longhouse at Sønderportsgade 37. But the city also has brick-built town houses from the 16th century and a number of classicistic houses from the 19th century.

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A black wall of water

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Story written by Søren Bitsch Christensen

Time / Periode 1500 1850

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A wall of water bearing down. Cows, hares, mice all fighting for their lives. People clinging to towers and huddled in attics above the swirling torrents of water full of clay and dead animals. That's how an eye witness described the scene in 1881 when a flood hit Ribe. The land mass had shifted for centuries, which had caused the flooding. It was worst in 1634 when the water level reached half a metre above the floor of the cathedral. It was even worse near the harbour. A pillar of the Skib Bridge still has a flood mark showing that the water was more than six metres above the normal level. The floods left ships stranded on fields and meadows, and once carried some woodwork from Ribe six kilometres inland.