The dike of Lolland

Facts

Moving mountains with shovels

The Lolland dike is the longest coastal defence project in the history of Denmark. It protects the South Lolland from Nakskov Fiord and 63 kilometres to the east. After the worst flooding that century, on 13 November 1872, one third of Lolland was left under water and the State issued a tender for a dike on Lolland. Between 1874 and 1877, 600 workmen moved 1.73 million cubic metres of soil using nothing more than shovels and wheelbarrows. The soil was built up to form a giant dike and its exterior was reinforced with fieldstone boulders. Twenty-seven sluices were also built. The largest sluice near Kramnitze receives water from 19,870 hectares or a good sixth of the whole of Lolland. The dike has secured the development of farming since the great flood.

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80 people die during the great flood

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Story written by Kjeld Hansen

Time / Periode 1872

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" Illustreret Tidende reported on the flood in November 1872: "The ruined buildings look like islands in the wild sea. Here the roof has collapsed and the inhabitants perhaps washed away by the raging waves; in places, there is help for the unfortunate people who have spent one night and one morning full of indescribably terror on the roofs... Sheep, cows, horses – their owners' pride and joy – float like carrion around on the troubled surface!” In one Lolland parish alone, 24 people drowned. On Falster, 52 people died in the flood. On boy was miraculously saved out in the Baltic Sea. A French ship found him sitting unconscious on the ridge of his parents' farmhouse, which had been washed out to sea. "