Sæby

Facts

A quiet town in North Jutland

By Søren Bitsch Christensen, Stadsarkivar (21 stories)

In the Middle Ages, the town of Sæby belonged to the bishop of Børglum Abbey, unlike the majority of Danish towns which belonged to the Crown. Sæby grew up around Mariested Abbey when it was built in 1462-1475. The town was granted the privileges of a market town in the year 1524, but just twelve years later it lost ground when the abbey suffered under the Reformation. In the 1600s, the town faced great problems when the harbour sanded up. In the same century, the government granted permission for the present Frederikshavn to build both fortifications and a customs house. The development of the town came to a near standstill until industry and tourism reversed its misfortunes in the 1900s. But because of its past hardships, the historic centre of the town remains very well preserved.

Public place

Selected entry

Family fun in the country

Story written by Søren Bitsch Christensen

Time / Periode 1400 1900

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In 1955, Sæby was the setting for Far til Fire på Landet (Father of Four in the Country"), the 3rd in a series of enduringly popular Danish family comedy films. The star actors of the day, Karl Stegger, Birgitte Bruun and Ib Mossin, descended on the small fishing hamlet, as did the film's blue toy elefant, Bodil Kjær. Here in the fishing town where time had stood still, the harbour and the dunes offered the actors a quiet getaway from their hectic lives in Copenhagen. It was poverty and marginalisation that had brought Sæby and many other Danish coastal towns to a standstill. But in the film, the town was transformed into a rural haven, where the city-dwellers came to enjoy a well-deserved holiday. "