Trail 10, Svendborg

This text is an excerpt from the book about the Archipelago Trail, and therefore provides more background, detail and inspiration than the shorter trail leaflets.

This trail leads you from Broholm Castle, past Hesselagergaard, through Tange Valley and out to the coast before reaching Lundeborg.

Møllegårdsmarken

A few kilometres north of Broholm and west of the Archipelago Trail lies a conifer‑planted field known as Møllegårdsmarken, where Broholm’s landowner N.F.B. Sehested discovered an Iron Age burial ground.

The cemetery was in use from around 100 BC to AD 400, at the same time as the settlement at Gudme and the trading site north of present‑day Lundeborg. Excavated between 1988 and 1994, the site contained no fewer than 2,500 graves—mostly cremation burials placed in urns, pots, jars or simple pits. Today, the site forms part of the agricultural landscape.

The trail continues north along Tange Stream, passing a building that once housed a watermill.

Passage Graves

About one kilometre north of Møllegårdsmarken you pass an even older burial site: a long barrow with the remains of two passage graves from the Neolithic era, hidden among the fir trees.

Fish Passage at Tange Stream

Where the Archipelago Trail follows the road north and crosses Tange Stream, a bypass channel has been created to restore the stream’s natural flow. The site once held a millpond, dam and watermill.

Hesselagergaard

Hesselagergaard is privately owned (no public access) and operated as a working forest and farming estate. It is mentioned in King Valdemar II’s land register from 1231, but the present main building was constructed by Johan Friis, who took over the estate after 1505.

Friis expanded the estate’s land holdings and, in 1532, secured tax exemptions for his tenant farmers. He became Chancellor of Denmark in 1536 under King Christian III, a position he held for 35 years. He built the current main building in 1538, established a local court (birkeret) in 1539 and a family entailed estate in 1548.

A Manor Built for Defence

Hesselagergaard was constructed with defence in mind—unsurprising given the recent Danish civil war, the Count’s Feud (1533–1536). The main house stood on one mound, farm buildings on another, both surrounded by moats and connected by a drawbridge. The present road runs along a dam that once held water in both the moat and the millpond.

Walls were thick—one metre on the main front and two metres at the rear. A well in the cellar ensured water supply during siege. Attackers would have had to cross two moats and a fortified gate.

High under the eaves runs a wall‑walk with arrow slits and machicolations for dropping hot liquids. Defensive fire could be directed from the stair tower and the two gable towers.
In later centuries, roofs and gables were altered and some moats filled in.

The Count’s Feud (1533–1536) — in brief

A Danish civil war following the dethronement of Catholic King Christian II, involving shifting alliances between Danish nobles, German mercenaries, peasants, Lübeck forces and Sweden under Gustav Vasa. It ended with Christian III’s victory and set the stage for the Lutheran Reformation in Denmark.

The Old Road

From Hesselagergaard, the trail heads southeast through Tange Valley, following the old Gammel Lundeborgvej—a rare untouched example of a pre‑modern country road, winding through woodland and meadow. Majestic oak trees line parts of the route, with large estate fields to the north and leafy forest toward the coast.

Approaching the shore, the Archipelago Trail continues south to Lundeborg, but you can detour north along Klokkefrø Path, a 7‑km coastal trail where the rare natterjack toad can be heard calling on warm evenings in May–July.

An Iron Age Trading Site

Where the trail reaches the coast once lay a major Iron Age trading site, active from around AD 200 to 550. Excavations revealed imported luxury goods—Roman glass beads, drinking vessels, bronze fragments and pottery—passed from trader to trader before reaching Lundeborg. Roman coins and “payment gold” (thin gold wire clipped to weight) were also found, along with over one hundred gold foil figures (guldgubber).

Craftsmen likely stayed longer than traders, including gold‑ and silversmiths, bronze casters, amber polishers, potters, carpenters, smiths, shipbuilders and comb makers.

Where Denmark Began

The monumental halls at Gudme, the vast Møllegårdsmarken cemetery and the trading site here together suggest an extraordinary centre of wealth and power. Some believe this region may have formed an early nucleus of what would later become Denmark—“the place where Denmark began.”

Lundeborg

Lundeborg emerged in the 1600s as a shipping point for bricks. A wreck carrying monk’s bricks still lies off the coast. Broholm maintained a loading place here for grain.

In 1861, the enterprising N.F.B. Sehested improved the harbour with two breakwaters, later adding the handsome timber‑framed grain warehouse that still stands. He owned ships that sailed grain to Norway and elsewhere.

In 1869, a steamer quay was built, and lively advertisements appeared in regional newspapers—especially in Flensburg—encouraging people to settle in Lundeborg rather than emigrating. New businesses emerged: a fish‑drying plant, vinegar works, dye works, lime kiln, ropewalk, inn, customs post, tobacco factory, and even a care home for disabled veterans of the 1864 war. Worker housing known as Momleby was built for tradespeople and labourers.
In the 1880s, Lundeborg had around 300 inhabitants.