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Gedser – the port and station town on the southern tip of Falster
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Since the early Middle Ages, there has been a ferry connection from the southern tip of Falster across the Baltic Sea to Mecklenburg and Rostock. Until Gedser was established at the end of the 19th century, Gedesby was the most southerly settlement. Here the ferry connections to Rostock had their departure point from the south end of the now-diked Bøtø Cove. A medieval ferry inn was situated in Gedesby. In the Middle Ages, royal travellers were accommodated in the royal border estate: Gedsergård, which belonged to the seat of the queen dowager in Nykøbing.
The year after the storm flood of November 1872 a law was passed for the construction of a new ferry harbour with steamship connections to cities in northern Germany. The ferry berth and harbour train station as the last station on the railway line from Nykøbing was completed in 1886. In circa 1900, Gedser consisted merely of a general store on Strandvejen and some houses on the east side of Langgade. However, the development of the new Langgade’s area, earlier a dirt road, began to gather pace in 1903 after the establishment of a railway ferry to Warnemünde. Gedser developed over the course of a few decades with public buildings and housing for customs, railway, ferry and police personnel.
The pilot station with pilot tower on Sdr. Boulevard was built in 1906, the Water Tower is from 1910 and the Power Station on Danmarksgade is from 1911. Gedser Church was designed in 1915 by the architect P.V. Jensen-Klindt, who later achieved notoriety for his design of Grundtvig’s Church in Copenhagen.
Most of the railway and ferry installations managed to avoid demolition when the development of Gedser more or less came to a standstill in the 1960’s. Upon the creation of the Fugleflugts line in 1963, a great proportion of the traffic moved from the Gedser crossing to the Rødby-Puttgarten-crossing. That same year local efforts resulted in the establishment of a new fishing harbour. The lifeboat station has also existed on the same site since 1991. The old lifeboat station, which was built in 1925, was moved to the marina when the new lifeboat station came into operation.
After World War II, the area north-west of the ferry harbour became a quarry for gravel and stone. The then Sydfalster municipality took charge of the area in the 1970’s and established a marina facing out onto Guldborg Sound. To the north of the marina, Gedser Holiday Park was built in 1987 as the first holiday centre in Denmark with a sub-tropical indoor water complex. Today the area has developed into a holiday home locality.
The Gedser crossing enjoyed a brief renaissance due to the many East German day-trippers that resulted after the fall of the Berlin wall until the Gedser-Warnemünde train ferry route finally ceased operation in 1995. After 109 years of service, the direct train connection between Copenhagen and Berlin was closed. The train service between Gedser and Nykøbing has been downsized to a couple of departures daily.
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Sydfalster over 1000 years - Gedesby
Gedesby is one of those exceptional medieval villages that really can trace its history all the way back to the 12th century. Geddesø Lake is known from the Knytlinge Saga in the Viking Age. In 1135, the lands in and around Gedesby formed part of the estate of the “Skovklosteret” monastery in Herlufsholm near Næstved. In the middle of the 13th century, fishing and horse husbandry was so widespread that they were included in the Royal tax lists. The village itself with its charming little medieval church has been situated, for over 900 years, at the foot of the now dammed cove facing onto the Baltic Sea.
Since the Middle Ages, the most southerly Sydfalster has gained distinction by its ideal placement as a port to Europe with international connections across the Baltic Sea, by the excellent farmland in the hinterland and by its central location in the middle of the Baltic Sea.
To this very day the landscape in and around Gedesby retains at least three distinctive layers that trace the history of the area. Firstly, traces of the area as a medieval border district. Secondly, traces of the development of modern farming infrastructures, which resulted from the farming district reforms at the end of the 18th century up to today, which include dikes, drainage and planting works. Lastly, the 20th century north-south transport corridors, which follow the Ice Age landscape of the protracted peninsula: roads, railway lines, supply facilities etc.
Today, the old Middle Age ferry harbour is, like the rest of the cove, dammed and reclaimed. During the reign of the Danish empire, it was from here that cattle transported via the Medieval East Danish cattle road were shipped across the Baltic Sea to Hanseatic cities in Northern Germany. Seeds and pollen which are indigenous to the area were found in layers of dung in the bottom of the Gedesby ship, which proves that cattle transported on the ship had grazed in tidal meadows and on the fringes of the strand in South Falster. The grazing had occurred just after the harvest because ripened corn seeds were discovered in the dung. This corresponds perfectly with the theory that the animals were shipped across the Baltic Sea in time for slaughtering in the autumn.
Monday, April 27 2009
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