One of my favorite meme formats I often see online is "The European Mind cannot comprehend [insert random thing only Americans would understand]" or the reverse, "The American Mind cannot comprehend [insert thing]". These memes are funny because of the surface level joke they present about how different various cultures really can be, even when we have a common or shared ancestry however many generations back.
I have seen these jokes online over the previous years, ever since meme culture exploded across the internet. And while I always thought they were funny, I never really understood the actual depth behind the humor until I visited Europe (Denmark anyway!) and got to speak with my future-in-law family that lives in Denmark.
When you visit a foreign country and only speak with tour guides, hotel staff, and so on, you get to know a little about the culture of the place you are staying in, but you don't get the finite nuances of those cultural differences unless you are speaking with someone of a much closer relationship, like family or friends.
My first shining example of this happened when I innocently showed some of the Danish cousins one of my favorite photos of my brother, posted by my dad on Facebook a few months ago.
When I tell you my future Danish cousin-in-law's eyes nearly popped out of his head when I showed him this photo, that is an understatement.
The cousin's eyes were wide, and he looked at me like I was nuts. He said to me, "All blades longer than 6.7cm are banned in Denmark!"
I laughed and replied, "My brother keeps his machete next to the sofa in the living room!"
(Don't even get me started on the differences in our gun laws!)
Anyways--where I am going with this is, the cultural differences are a two way street. Just like how the Danish cannot comprehend an American man having a machete lying beside his sofa, I was just as astounded when I started to dig into the history of Ribe, the town we stayed in when visiting Denmark.
The closest I can come to describing Ribe in a way Americans will understand is this--its sort of like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, only so much cooler.
(Don't come for me colonial history lovers! I don't mean it as an insult, just trying to make a comparison!)
For those unaware, Ribe is not only the oldest town in Denmark, its the oldest town in ALL of Scandinavia.
In the United States, our oldest town that was able to be permanently settled and occupied (Jamestown) was first colonized in 1607. The first documented history of Ribe was in around 710 AD (that's only an eight hundred and ninety-seven year difference!).
The United States is about to celebrate our 250th birthday next year (in 2026!). This is a huge deal for Americans and certain groups like DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) have been planning cultural celebrations to commemorate the massive achievement for years. I first started to get involved with DAR in 2018 and they were already starting plans for 2026.
Yeah uh, Ribe celebrated its 1,300th birthday in 2010.
Do you know how insane a number like that sounds to an American? Even someone as well versed in history as I am, that number is still almost unfathomable. Not only is that number absolutely insane--the fact that Ribe has been continually occupied all one thousand and three hundred of those years is even more crazy.
Sure, we have archaeological sites that old in the US--some Native American sites go back even further, thousands of years further (like the Clovis, New Mexico site that shows people occupied the Americas up to 13,000 years ago). But just because we have ridiculously old archaeological sites doesn't mean people have lived there that whole time. The oldest continually-occupied town in North America (which was originally settled by the Spanish and so is not counted as the first American city, despite it being located in America--confusing I know) is St. Augustine, Florida, which was founded in the mid-1500s.
We as citizens of the United States simply do not have places like Ribe anywhere in our country, and that's what makes Ribe, and other older occupied cities like it, so fascinating to "The American Mind." In fact, this is highlighted in a Percy Jackson book of all things! In the second series, Heroes of Olympus, the character Leo Valdez has an iconic line in one of the books, when he is complaining about looking at ruins all across Europe. Leo complains (and I'm paraphrasing here so excuse me if I don't have this line exactly correct) "Take me back to the United States, where our oldest buildings are Ye Olde McDonalds and High Schools." While the line isn't historically accurate, it does show how Americans feel and think about our own history and archaeology.
All of this was crashing around in my head as I found myself standing in Ribe. For the past three years, my fiancé has been telling me how much he loves visiting Denmark and the cousins and family he has there. He loves the cultural roots his family still celebrates here in the States (and now I do too, put a plate of Frikadeller in front of me and I will die happy!) and he has told me how excited he is to pass that legacy on to our children one day.
As an informally-trained genealogist myself, I latched onto this history just as tightly. Every branch of my own family tree has much deeper roots in the United States--my last relative to reach the US was a great-great-great-grandmother who came across from England in the early 1800s. My earliest relatives have been here since North Carolina, New York, and Pennsylvania were still colonies. Not so for my fiancé--his great-grandfather arrived in the US from Denmark in 1921, passing through Ellis Island on his way to Arizona.
Luckily for my fiancé, his great-grandfather never forgot his family in Denmark. My fiancé's grandmother visited Denmark for the first time when she was eleven or twelve years old, and has continually gone back to visit ever since. This also allowed her to foster relationships with the cousins, aunts, and uncles she would have never gotten to know otherwise.
The Danish relatives are just as grateful to have family in Arizona and Idaho. Several times a year, some of the Danes visit the United States and come stay with my fiancé's grandma (or her sister in Idaho). Over the past three years, this allowed me to get a taste of Danish culture before I ever got to visit the country myself. One of the most fascinating conversations I had was with one of the cousins, who told me she was shocked how much of my genealogy I have memorized and floating around in my mind. She told me that genealogy is not nearly as popular in Denmark, because for most of them, their family has always been Danish. There's no need to research when you know the basics! But this also means that, in her opinion, a lot of the Danes don't know the names of their great-grandparents, let alone generations further back. Apparently there is also less emphasis on getting to know extended family as well.
When I did get to visit the country in June of 2025, part of our celebration was a birthday party for my future-grandmother-in-law. While we were visiting the relatives (over seventy people came to the party!) I learned that the relatives have admitted that, were it not for my fiancé's grandmother and great-aunt, the Danes would not know their second cousins as well, let alone have a good relationship with them.
Now I'd like to note, that this is not a blanket statement on Danish culture as a whole and merely what I heard from the family while I was there. The photo above was our turnout for the birthday party!
With all of that said, I clearly spent a lot of time in Ribe (and Vilslev!) walking around in deep fascination and appreciation for the history beneath every step I took. When I got home, I knew I wanted to make a post about my time in Denmark, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to say.
So I started off easy, by compiling all of the notes I had taken from the various places we visited. From those notes, I started to make a timeline of events in Ribe. Once I had my timeline from my notes, I found myself spiraling deeper and deeper down into Danish history, wanting to flesh out the timeline to make it much more concrete than what I had--because while I took lots of notes while in the country, there were huge gaps in between the several periods of history documented in the places I visited.
For example, at the VikingeCenter, I learned about Ribe's earliest roots from circa 700 AD to 1000 AD. At the Cathedral, I learned history from 1100 to 1400 AD. At the Hex! Museum of Witch Hunt, I learned history from the 1500s and 1600s. But I also knew that Ribe had been continuously occupied for the last 1,300 years, so I wanted to know what I had missed from the in-between periods, how did the town change after the Middle Ages ended, and how did it get to be the town I visited today?
The first thing I noticed when doing my online research was this--there are many articles on the history of Ribe, but they all focus on one aspect or another, and again, had big gaps in time. I wanted to know the full story, from the very beginning up to today. And with that, I wanted to know more about the village where my fiancé's family came from--Vilslev, which is only a ten minute drive from Ribe. Once I had all of that information, I realized my timeline had a few random events from Denmark's history at large, and so then I found myself looking up important dates that affected the entire realm.
What I ended up with was an eighteen-page -long Microsoft Word Document, with almost two-thousand years worth of history from start to end. Along the way, I discovered that the school I watched one of the cousins graduate from in June has been open for over one thousand years! Imagine what Leo Valdez from the Percy Jackson books would have said to that! Another discovery I made, completely by accident, was that it was illegal for two men or two women to dance together in Denmark until 1973. Maybe Footloose should have been based in Denmark instead of Texas! I also discovered that my fiancé's great-grandfather was actually a second-cousin of a well-known figure from Tempe, Arizona History--a man whose home still stands as a local museum--a house that my own father lived in the neighborhood behind for many years.
After clicking on more articles, scanning more websites, and crossing all corners of the internet for the past week, I finally told myself I had to stop, or else the research would never end!
With all of that said, let me take you down the rabbit hole, back in time, to tell you all about the oldest-continually-occupied town in Scandinavian history, and how that town eventually brought my fiancé and I together 5,500 miles later so that I can share the story of Ribe with all of you today.
The first thing I want my readers to understand is Denmark's unique geography. Before I visited the country in person, I had Denmark's layout all completely wrong in my head, so I figured I would provide some maps to help everyone out.
When I flew into Denmark, we landed in Copenhagen. As you can see on the map above, Copenhagen is to the far east of the realm, and on a completely separate island than most people associate with Denmark as a country (the big taller one to the north and west).
Ribe, on the other hand, is all the way to the far left of this map. When you zoom out this far on Google Maps, Ribe doesn't even show up as a city. All you get is the red dotted area you see on the map. I put the marker representing Ribe in as close to the area as I could.
When we drove from Copenhagen to Ribe, it took us about three hours to make the drive. If you drive three hours in my home state of Arizona, we make it (almost) the whole way to my fiancé's family's other ancestral homeland of Taylor, Arizona (which I should really do a whole separate post on sometime but I digress!). Just like the American mind cannot fathom living in a 1,300 year old city, the European mind has a hard time understanding that if you drive five hours in the state of Texas, you're probably still in Texas!
So, now that you can visually see where Ribe is, we can start telling the tale of this quaint little town with a bit more background information to set the stage.
Historically speaking, Ribe was the Dane’s Gateway to the West and served as a major harbor town from 700 to 1700 AD, the only medieval North Sea port in Denmark. Because of Ribe's unique location on the far western coast of Denmark, this allowed the early settlers of the area to use Ribe as a point to travel further into parts of Europe like (what is today) the United Kingdom to the direct west, and Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and so on to the west and south.
Today, Ribe is the oldest and best-preserved town in Denmark and all of Scandinavia. It is only four miles (or six and a half kilometers) from the North Sea and twenty miles (or thirty-two kilometers) from Esbjerg, Denmark’s fifth largest city.
This is a map, screenshotted from Google Maps, showing the distance between Ribe, Vilslev, and Esbjerg.
Now, when one thinks of Denmark, they often think of Vikings, and Ribe is one of the more-famous Viking towns in Denmark.
The famous raids on England and other parts of Europe associated with Viking Culture did not start until the late 700s AD and did not fully pick up until mid-800s AD. This means Ribe, which was first established somewhere between 700 and 710 AD, was founded with the very beginning of Viking culture, and pre-dates what the Vikings are famous for by several decades.
(If you just visually saw the mind-blown emoji character in your head, that's okay, I did too when I first realized this!)
When we visited the VikingeCenter (which I will go into more detail about in a bit), we also got to see just how important the Nordic Religious Culture was to the early settlers in Ribe and other parts of Scandinavia, and since I had so many notes about that part of the culture, I figured I would also fill you in on a bit of that here as well.
There is scant evidence of early Viking religious culture—though some believe the Aesir (one of the Nordic pantheons they believed in) were first worshipped up to 300 years before the start of Viking culture, so mythological information about the Aesir would have been present in Ribe from the very beginning.
Some of the beliefs these settlers would have held in their every day lives would be The Norns. (The Norns appear to be strangling my future-uncle-in-law in a photo he took outside of the VikingeCenter in June of 2025!)
The Norns live at the Well of Urd under the World Tree Yggdrasil. They draw water to pour over the tree every day to prevent it from rotting or drying out. The Norns represent the Past, Present, and Future; they decide the destinies of humans and gods. The Norns appear at the birth of a person to determine their future, and weave the thread of life to reveal that future. The fewer the knots in a person's line, the easier their life will be.
(My "first" engagement ring--my fiance bought me this necklace at the Viking Museum in Ribe when he visited Denmark in June of 2022. The necklace has a gold pendant of Yggdrasil, the world tree, as well as a heart made of amber on a gold chain. I told him I would wear the necklace every day until he gave me an actual engagement ring. Despite us getting officially engaged last October, I continue to wear the necklace every day!)
Other important Norse Gods the people of Ribe would have worshipped include Odin, god of war and the upper class; earls and kings would bring him gifts. Frigga is Odin’s wife and the goddess of matrimonial love. Thor is the god of farmers and son of Odin; he brings thunder and rain during the dry summer and saves harvests. Thor holds the Jötnar (or giants) and chaos in check. Balder, god of light and son of Odin and Frigga was “So just his verdicts cannot be carried out," (according to signage at the VikingeCenter). Freyr was the ruler of Vanir (the other pantheon the Nordic people believed in) and the god of fertility. Freyja was the sister of Freyr and goddess of love. Tyr was the god of justice and oversaw contracts and oaths. He bound Fenrir, the large mythological wolf, after sacrificing his hand to bind Fenrir until the day of Ragnarök sets the beast loose. Loki is a Jötunn or giant, and not originally born of the Aesir or Vanir, but he became welcomed and is a blood brother of Odin. Loki is a trickster, causing trouble wherever he goes, but he also tries to remedy wrongs. It is his fault Thor's famous hammer Mjölnir was created and he is to blame for Balder’s death after Loki tricked another god into hurling mistletoe at Balder, the one substance in the universe capable of killing him.
Another important aspect of early Viking and Danish culture was their written alphabet, or runes.
Runes, from the Germanic word rûna, means “whisper, advice, or secret.” During Viking times, the spoken word and runes themselves were thought to be capable of influencing the physical world. Words and runes can bring good or bad influence to the world at large and the people in it. “Níð” or "Nid" was the term for disparaging or spiteful words that could impose penalties on anyone who used them. At the VikingeCenter, carver Erik the Red took 300 hours to carve a 4.8 tonne granite rock into a monument to the farmer Vestein (Shown above in photos I took in June of 2025). A translation of the inscription reads “Vestein raised this stone in memory of Asvid, his son, a very good boy, who drowned on the way back from Norway” on the west side. On the east side, “The Danes in Hviding made furrows in the pale sand. The Danes in Ribe make these tracks come alive. Karen and Bjorne had this monument made to give the Danes power and life. Eric the Red carved.” This is meant to attract Viking power to benefit the Center, those who live and work there, and its visitors.
Its also just really freaking cool to look at. Runic writing that survives to this day rarely has the paint still on it, and so this giant granite stone gives us a glimpse into what Viking monuments would have looked like in their own time.
This is the sign explaining Runes at the VikingeCenter. Signs at the center are displayed in Danish, English, and German and also include a fictionalized version of what the Vikings would have been doing at the time with whatever the subject matter of the sign is.
Now that I have provided some background information on Ribe's geography and early cultural history, we can get into what we are all actually here for today--the timeline.
As we delve deep into Denmark's past, I will provide the date the event in question happened, as well as some more background information (when applicable). Sometimes you will get way more information than you could ever think to ask for (just wait until we get to the section on Viking animal husbandry!), but hopefully this is all still just as intriguing and keeps your attention. And just remember, all of this is not only true, but happened in a country that is today roughly the size of Massachusetts!
The (Not Quite So Sacred) Timeline
You couldn't expect me to talk about a timeline in a Scandinavian country without referencing Marvel's Loki TV show, could you?
c.10,000 BC, Early Humans first begin to settle what is present-day Denmark.
c.200 AD, People living in present-day Denmark begin using the runic alphabet (like I showed examples of above).
705 AD, Dendrochronology (the study of tree rings, yes this is a thing and yes it is really cool) dates an oak plank from a surviving well structure to this time, the oldest archaeological evidence of Ribe (The town was actually known as Ripa at this time and I will refer to it as such from here on out until the name changed).
c.705-720 AD, Ripa is most likely a seasonal Summer Market before the town becomes a permanent settlement. Ripa is most likely able to become a permanent settlement under the King’s decree. We know this because of nearby Viking-era surviving archaeological sites like Kanhave Canal on Samsø (established under decree of the king in 726 AD) and Danevirke Fortification (also formed under the king's decree in 737 AD).
Beads created in Ripa's market at this time are colored blue and white. The blue is crafted from blue mosaic pieces, and white from green fragments that appear white thanks to air bubbles in the glass. Beads such as these are one of the oldest forms of archaeological evidence from Ripa's early history that have survived to present-day.
c.700-900 AD, Ripa’s Market is fully established and operating throughout these centuries. A version of this market is shown in the VikingeCenter today. The Market is the oldest archaeological evidence of Ripa's existence and pre-dates the town. Coins were minted in the town throughout the Viking Age. The ruling king at the time controlled the use of currency, and demanded traders from outside of Denmark exchange their foreign coins for Ripa coin, helping bolster the town’s economic importance.
More information on the Ripa Market, which is representative of what the actual market would have looked like around 750 AD is open today at the Ribe VikingeCenter. At the VikingeCenter Market, you will find several large buildings with goods that would have been carried in by the water. By 800 AD, the sailing ship had reached the area, allowing for trade networks to be developed to far away places. Ripa is the “Bridge Between Worlds” in the VikingeCenter's words. Craftsmen settled in the town because of the availability of raw goods and customers. Remnants of ironsmiths, amber workers, leather workers, comb makers, and silversmiths have been found in the surviving archaeological evidence. These craftsmen put down roots and stayed for generations. Several beadmakers with multiple temporary workshops and one large permanent one have been uncovered by archaeologists in the area as well.
The VikingeCenter has re-erected the remnants of actual houses that once stood in the Ripa Market. One such house is believed to have perhaps belonged to the local Silversmith who lived in the larger house present in the VikingeCenter today. The larger-than-average home would show off his wealth and influence to others in the town. Built of solid oak trunks, the home has a footway from the main street, which follows along the house, and down to the pier. Glass beadmakers would also have lived on the main street but were not as affluent. Their homes were constructed of wattle and daub, with wooden boarding which faces the main street to “give a nice impression” according to the VikingeCenter.
Above are photos of some of the houses in the VikingeCenter that have been rebuilt from pieces of houses that survived in the archaeological record. It is a wonderfully strange feeling to walk into a house, knowing it was once home to early Viking people over a thousand years ago!
750-850 AD, The Port of Ripa is established.
The port of Ripa is shown in the VikingeCenter with three boats sized for transporting goods across the North Sea. The harbor shown at the center is similar to what it would have looked like around 750 AD. The actual Ripa Harbor's exact location has not been found yet because the river’s exact route from twelve-hundred years ago has not been mapped, but archaeologists know a harbor did exist in the eighth century.
Extensive trade with Southern Europe must have been present during this time. Clues as to this trade network lie in the evidence found in the surviving marketplace's archaeological documentation.
Heiðabýr, (or Haithabu in Low German) was a town known as Hedeby today. The town was a Viking settlement near present-day Schleswig in Germany. The town's harbor has been excavated, and inspired the VikingeCenter harbor visitors can see today. The harbor includes a number of landing areas that were extended and joined together over the years. These expansions allowed for bigger ships with deeper draughts to be able to be brought in closer to Ripa. The river Ribe Å allowed for “broad-bowed trading ships” “awe-inspiring longboats”, and small fishing and river boats to traverse up to the harbor itself. An anchor weighing 27.5kg and other artifacts found in the area near Ribe provide evidence of ship's being repaired, and again provides more clues that a harbor once existed within this coastal town.
Above are photos of the VikingeCenter harbor and one of the boats built to resemble what Viking boats would have once looked like.
750-850 AD, Ripa is firmly established as a thriving town in the archaeological record.
c.760-780 AD, A Glass alchemy building was built, with surviving archaeological evidence excavated to show proof of this workshop.
The evidence shows that several craftsmen would have worked inside the building. Among the evidence discovered in this workshop were clay crucible shards. The remnants of the crucibles, used for heating glass to make beads, show “technical knowledge” beyond what was previously believed glassmakers in Ripa were capable of at the time (according to Museet Ribes Vikinger's exhibit). The glass shards and crucible pieces show evidence of glass and metal being mixed to create different colors. Advanced knowledge of glass properties are also shown in surviving “contemporary alchemical manuscripts;" Making Ripa home to “highly specialised expert glass craftsmen.”
The archaeologists were able to reconstruct major pieces of two glass-heating crucibles. Inside the pieces, one can see red and green glass coatings and drops of other colors like yellow. These crucibles were made from imported clay. The raw materials used to make the beads, mainly shards from broken cups, vessels, and small cube shaped mosaic stones recycled from Roman times, were also found during the excavations. The glass was made in Egypt centuries before it was recycled in Ripa. After leaving Egypt, the colored glass was used to make mosaics in the Roman-controlled Rhine Valley. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the glass eventually made its way to parts of the Viking world, including Ripa. These beads included the famous “wasp beads” and other varieties crafted in Ripa at this time. Air bubbles in the green glass make them appear white. Beads were made in a workshop behind the beadmaker's house, and hundreds of beads were likely made. The surviving evidence of the workshop shows a clay floor and at least six kilns on the floor itself. One or two ovens would have been used at a time to heat the kilns and ignite the whole process.
The top two photos are examples of glass shards discovered during archaeological excavations. The bottom photo shows "Wasp Beads" as well as other varieties crafted in Ripa during this era.
c.780 AD, Beads from as far afield as Syria arrive in Ripa, running the local beadmakers out of town. As the VikingeCenter puts it, these beadmakers were an “early victim of globalisation.” Reconstructed workshops in the center are described as being “Birka” and “Hedeby” types; meaning similar to workshops discovered at other archaeological sites in the area.
793 AD, Vikings raid Lindisfarne in what is today England, setting off what historians view as the “Viking Age.” While there is no way to know if any of those raiders were from Ripa, what we can see from this timeline is that the Viking culture did not start with bloodthirsty warfare like we are often taught to believe, at least in the United States school system.
c.825 AD, The VikingeCenter showcases multiple buildings in their reconstructed town from around this era of Ripa's history.
At this time, the river is the western border of town. In the ninth century, a two to three meter wide moat is created, not for defense but instead to mark the town’s borders. This is done as a way to physically point out where the town’s laws and traditions are to be observed. In the last half of the tenth century, the ditch is turned into a proper moat to fortify the town. Ripa is located at a place where two rivers intersect, (known as Ribe Å and Tved Å today). The Vikings could take the river by boat to get to town. Ripa is located on the edge of a marsh where flood risk is lessened. The VikingeCenter town has been reconstructed to how it looked around 825 AD. Plank built roads around town were constructed and were necessary to avoid mud from foot traffic. Eight houses from two areas of the ancient town have been reconstructed. Three houses which lie to the north are three versions of the same house with different types of roofs. Five houses to the south were found east of the station and are shown standing in a group exactly as they would have been seen during the Viking Age.
Editor's Note: The VikingeCenter signage refers to "the station" on multiple occasions but I'm not quite sure what they mean by "station." I'm assuming they mean the market or center of what used to be Ripa Town but I'm not entirely sure. Just wanted to put that in for clarification purposes.
Ripa town shows more evidence of imported goods than other Viking Age settlements that have been excavated, and it shows a high number of craftsmen lived in town. Archaeological digs continue to this day with new pieces of the puzzle of Ripa always appearing, but archaeological digs are made difficult by the fact that, as a continually occupied town, there are more modern structures existing over top the old. Most people don't appreciate archaeologists asking if they can dig up the homeowner's floor to look for pieces of the past!
Above are more photos of reconstructed houses within the VikingeCenter.
c.850-950 AD, The VikingeCenter's interpretation of Ansgar’s Church and burial ground are a representation of what Ansgar’s church may have looked like during this era. (More on him in a moment down below).
The church would have been built of wood and was the first Christian church ever built in what is today Denmark. King Horik II also allowed Ansgar to build a church in the aforementioned Heiðabýr (also known as Haithabhu or Hedeby). King Horik II was economically inclined to allow for the building of churches in his realm because some Christian traders would not do business with Pagans.
As for the VikingeCenter's church, it's size and construction are based on finds from Tostedt near present-day Hamburg where Ansgar was Bishop. Wood carvings on the outside of the center's church are done in the Viking-era style gleaned from surviving jewelry and plate found by archaeologists. The inside of the church is made of Christian designs based on Southern-European styles. The church is consecrated.
Here are some photos I took of the center's church while visiting in June of 2025. Most of the paint is made from original materials the Vikings themselves would have used at the time. I also snapped a photo of the center's painter, who works diligently to make the church look as authentic to the time period as possible. When my fiancé visited the center in 2022, the church had been constructed but not painted, meaning all of the painting has been done in the last three years!
862 AD, The first surviving written account of Ripa is created when the bishop Ansgar writes to King Horik II for permission to build a church in the town.
Ansgar’s work as an early missionary, along with knowledge passed through trading routes, allowed for Ripa to convert to Christianity much earlier than other places in Europe. At this time, the majority of the Danes were still Pagan. The remains of this early church may stretch to underneath the present Cathedral, but excavations only a few yards away (which is now a museum) show evidence of finds related to the church, like grave goods. No actual evidence of Ansgar's church itself has been uncovered yet, but archaeologists continue to hunt for evidence of this important early Christian site.
974-981 AD, Ringborgens are established around various settlements in present-day Denmark and Sweden as warfare and raiding become more widespread in the countryside.
While there was never a battle fortification such as this built in the ancient town of Ripa, a version of what these fortresses would have looked like are currently under construction at the VikingeCenter (as of June 2025). The center of the ring wall is sixty-five meters across, half the size of the ring built in Trelleborg, Zealand.
Five such ring fortresses that were built in Viking times have been uncovered. Two were found in Jutland, two on Zealand, and one on Funen. Another was uncovered in Scania in Sweden. While Ripa itself was never fortified, the trench around town was expanded into a proper moat to help protect the town.
These fortifications across the Danish countryside were constructed by King Harald Bluetooth, as a way to protect his people from war spreading in southern Europe. King Bluetooth pressed his people to convert to the new religion, Christianity, as a way to avoid becoming the next target from southern raiders. Unfortunately, while his actions did protect his people from the south, they did not protect his people from the north; with Norway and Sweden looming across the North Sea.
The Ring Fortresses would have been the only tall structures in the area at the time, save for the city walls in Ripa, Heiðabýr (also known as Haithabu in Sweden), and Aarhus (Denmark). There was never a ring near Ripa, but Ripa was fortified with a semicircle trench which became a moat, eight meters wide and one meter deep. The inner side was six meters wide and had a two meter tall rampart. Ripa was a “Lucrative Business” locale at the time, which made the moat necessary to protect the town. A grave found near the ancient city had a soldier with a horse in full battle regalia inside, leading archaeologists to speculate warfare was very near the city during this era.
Denmark’s largest fort was that of Aggersborg in Northern Jutland, which measures 240 meters across. This fort has also been called the world's largest ring fort, and is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Bows and arrows were also made in the Viking Age for war and hunting. Arrowheads were mainly made of iron. The bows themselves were sometimes made of wood or animal bones. Longbows were made of yew or elm, and strung with flax.
Visitors to the VikingeCenter can help in the construction process of the Ringborgen and surrounding buildings by hammering out wooden dowels. Here is my fiancé giving it a try for himself!
948 AD, The Bishopric reaches Ripa when the town becomes an Episcopal Residence. This means a Bishop officially resided in the town full time from then on. A document from this time also states that the town is called "Ripensis". Ripa may come from the Latin word meaning "River Bank."
c.965 AD, King Harald Bluetooth has the famous Jelling Stones carved, as a way to show his conversion to Christianity publicly and to convert other Danes away from Paganism.
For centuries this was believed to be the first real evidence of Christians in Denmark but this has now been disproven thanks to artifacts from Ansgar's church, and Ansgar's biography resurfacing in the archaeological record, which prove Christians existed in Denmark for at least one hundred and three years before the carving of the Jelling Stones.
Photo originally posted at https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/the-monuments-at-jelling/the-jelling-stone/ , by Irina-Maria Manea from the National Museum of Denmark.
This image shows the original Jelling Stone to the left with a re-created and re-painted image to the right, allowing people to see what the original stone may have looked like during Harald Bluetooth's time. The image shows the figure of Jesus Christ as a way to demonstrate Harald's conversion to Christianity.
980 AD, Farming life is fully established in Ripa by this time, with recreations of what these Viking Era farms may have looked like at the VikingeCenter.
Hvidinggården’s buildings, gardens, and animals show what farming and agriculture being central to Viking life would have looked like at the VikingeCenter. Cattle provided meat, milk, butter, leather, drinking horns, and bones for spoons. Sheep would have given milk, meat, and wool for cloth. Bullocks were field drought animals. Horses were kept for riding. Vikings loved pigs and kept them for pork. Geese were kept for down pillows and arrow feathers. Hens and chicks were kept for eggs, and kittens were raised to control mice.
Above are photos of the farmhouse, as well as fields currently used to grow crops in the VikingeCenter.
Below is more information on Viking Era farming provided by the VikingeCenter. It is probably way more information than any of you wanted to know about ancient farms and animal husbandry, and so I am highlighting this area in colored text. If you are uninterested in this topic, you can skip ahead to when the text goes back to the standard gray color.
All of the animals I am highlighting below are kept at the VikingeCenter in their farming area, called the Hvidinggården.
The Icelandic Horse is a direct descendant of horses the Vikings took to Iceland in the ninth century, with no other horses being introduced to the area after 1100 AD. As a result, these horses retained their original characteristics. According to the Vikingecenter, these horses are “Unusually healthy, study, hardy, and can stand all types of weather.” They also have the aptitude for five gaits: walk, trot, pace, gallop, and tölt, which means one hoof remains on the ground with the rider hardly moving in the saddle, allowing the horse and rider to travel for miles on uneven ground without getting tired. These horses are very versatile and live for a long time. This breed is first ridden around the age of four years old to create their stocky build. Icelandic horses are all small and tough but their colors vary greatly with individual character traits. Names given to the foals are Icelandic and refer to color, time of birth, character, or temperament. Examples of this include Ganti = Mischief or Solfari = One who travels with the Sun.
Above is a short video showing Icelandic horses at the center.
Icelandic Cattle, are a Viking Age cattle smaller than modern beef and dairy cows. Today’s cattle are genetically closest to older breeds like the Doele, Telemark, and Troender, all of which come from Norway. Icelandic cows are direct descendants of Norwegian Viking Cattle, which were taken to Iceland during the ninth century's colonization of the island. Icelandic cattle have a wide variety of colors and markings. They have no horns because of selective breeding, but these cattle would have had horns in the Viking Age.
Above is a photo of Icelandic Cattle being kept at the VikingeCenter.
In the Iron Age, Vikings kept hens for eggs, much like humans continue to do today (evidence of these hens have been found in the archaeological remains of kitchens). The breed Vikings would have kept originated in the Himalayas and may have come to Scandinavia, as eggs or “travel provisions," (as the VikingeCenter puts it). The breed is question is called the Brown Danish Hen, and is one of the few pure breeds left in Europe. Geese have been kept in Denmark since antiquity. Geese eggs may have been taken from wild nests and hatched to domesticate them. This was a standard practice until the middle of the twentieth century when the practice was banned. Archaeological finds show geese were popular during the Viking Age, with the birds providing meat and flight feathers which were used for arrows.
Above are a photo and video of some of the hens that are allowed to roam the VikingeCenter.
Also held at the VikingeCenter are the nearly pure-bred sheep that are similar to what real Vikings would have had. This breed is very small with a short tail. Both sexes have spiral horns but the rams are larger, with their fleeces in various shades of grey. Lambs are typically born in late spring. Their fleece is coal black during the first month of their lives. Lüneburger Heidschnucke is the official breed name for these sheep. Unfortunately, the actual breed the Vikings kept died out in Denmark because their wool couldn’t complete with English breeds that were being imported--more evidence of the cost of globalisation on a local scale. Luckily the breed survived to the south of Denmark and was reintroduced in 1950. Unfortunately I did not get any photos of the sheep while I was at the VikingeCenter.
The Pig was valued in the Viking Age for being easy to keep, allowing the flavorful fatty meat to be apart of the Viking diet. Sortbroget Landrace is this breed's name and they are similar to the Danish land-pig. These pigs are very hardy and can be kept outdoors, year-round! The sows are very maternal and usually have large viable litters. Pigs were so renowned in the Viking Era that they are mentioned in various stories in Norse Mythology.
When I visited the center, all of the pigs were taking a nap. What a life!
The farm stables and living quarters were kept under the same roof for lots of cultures and during most of ancient history, and this was true in the early Viking era as well. In the Viking age, the stable usually faced to the east. At the end of Viking Age, unattached stables become more common. At the archaeological site that was reconstructed at the VikingeCenter, a small stable found at the eastern end of the longhouse led researchers to believe another larger one must have stood nearby. It is possible that this building was made of wattle and daub.
The Farm Smithy was placed away from the usual wind direction and “slightly out of way” of the rest of the town’s estate buildings, but still within the fence line of town. This building was 3.5 meters by 4.5 meters built with horizontal planks, probably of oak. A raised forge was located in the center of the dirt floor. Bellows in the smithy would provide extra air for the fire, bringing the temperature to 1000 degrees Celsius, which is the temperature needed to work iron.
Another building reconstructed at the VikingeCenter is dubbed The Inn. In the Viking Age, when entering Ripa from the South East, one would find a 17 meter long by 5.25 meter wide wattle and daub building near the river bank, with a road leading from a fence to the fort. This house’s function is unknown, so the center calls it the inn.
Another friendly face my fiancé and I discovered while visiting the VikingeCenter was this cat who apparently loves people and lives by the chicken coop!
980 AD, Hviding Manor, a building later excavated and rebuilt in the VikingeCenter, was erected in Gammel Hviding (a site to the south of Denmark).
The site at Gammel Hviding has traces of buildings erected from 400 BC to approximately 1150 AD, making it hard to tell which buildings were erected when, and which stood at the same time or separate times from others. The VikingeCenter shows the archaeologists' best estimate of how the manor looked in 980 AD.
The house is of Trelleborg-Fyrkat style (which I have ascertained are two separate archaeological sites in Denmark). The longhouse was built with 160 solid oak trunks and the roof made of 5,000 handmade shingles. The good side of the longhouse faces west, with stables to the east. Originally, the manor had small and large service buildings. One such addition was the 50 meter square workshop with many uses depending on the time of year. The workshop could have been used for carpentry, joinery, butchery, tanning skin, bundling straw, wickerwork, pottery, or more. It may have also served as sleeping quarters for workers or slaves.
The Cobbler’s House is another building at the VikingeCenter, reconstructed from archaeological finds east of the station. Archaeologists found five houses close together, with remnants of different craftsmen inside. One may have been a cobbler who made different types of shoes, found all around Ripa. Large quantities of leather pieces left over from shoemaking have been found. The cut scraps and poor use of materials shows skins were in good supply.
Editor's note: When my fiancé and I visited the VikingeCenter, we interacted with the cobbler working and living at the center at the time. The cobbler also had a weiner dog!! Sadly the weenie was not very interested in me because I didn't have any food for him (at least, that's what the cobbler's wife told me anyway!)
You can see the black weiner dog in the background of this photo!!
980 AD, The Thing Wall is a 30 meter long house, built around this time and discovered east of the station. The house was rebuilt at the VikingeCenter after being discovered.
The house has slightly curved wattle and daub walls and a thatched roof, resembling the main buildings from nearby farms. The size of the house makes one think it was an influential owner, maybe in charge of the marketplace? The house has a sleeping area, an entrance hall, a main hall, and a two-room kitchen area. This may mean the house was for a large household.
The Old Norse word þing (or Thing) meant governing assembly of free members of the community. There is no evidence of such a gathering in Ripa at this time. Þing assemblies may be early evidence of introducing democracy to Denmark, and that disputes were not settled purely through violence and no other means. Þing ideas came from Northern Scandinavia and traveled south to the Viking Settlements across northern Europe.
Evidence of a shared Norse Heritage can be seen in the names of towns like Gulating in Norway, Tingvalla in Sweden, Thingvellir in Iceland, Tinganes in the Faroe Islands, Tingwall in Shetland and Orkney (two separate sites), Dingwall in Scotland, Tynwald in the Isle of Man, and and Fingay Hill in England, all of which are derived from the word Þing.
(This is a Google Maps screenshot, taken and mapped by me, of the various cities with shared heritage named at the VikingeCenter. As you can see, they are all fairly close together and share the common Þing name).
c.982-985, Erik the Red reaches Greenland and establishes a Viking Settlement there.
9-12th Century, A Christian burial ground is established and operates at the church established by Bishop Ansgar.
Eighty-two burials have been excavated from the church graveyard. Archaeologists estimate there are between two and three thousand surviving burials in the churchyard. The size of the graveyard indicates that this may have been the sole (or at least most used) Christian burial ground for all of Jutland at the time.
Editor's Note: The previous two photos are examples of bones discovered in the Cathedral graveyard. I believe this is the same graveyard as the early church graveyard, but I'm not 100% certain, so I wanted to point this out. These bones are part of an exhibit within the Cathedral itself, which I will be getting to very soon!
Above is an example of surgical instruments found near the Cathedral that would have been used in the 12th Century.
11th and 12th Century Kings Knut the Great, Harthacnut, Sven Estridsson, and Nils all have coins minted with Ribe’s name on them, helping further solidify the town's standing as an economic force.
Editor's Note: I haven't been able to track down a definitive date on when the town's name switched from Ripa to Ribe, but I believe it was after the Viking Age came to an end, so from here on out I will refer to the town as Ribe.
1127 AD, King Niels son is married in Ribe, showing that Ribe is a special location that even the royal family visits and lives near.
Above is an example of a pair of wedding rings found near the Cathedral. Though the sign doesn't indicate a date, they are at least a few centuries old. According to Google Translate's version of Danish, the sign reads:
"A pair of wedding rings of gold of that kind which has been used for centuries. The wedding ring must be worn on the fourth finger, when it was believed that there was a direct vein from the liver to the heart."
1137 AD, The first Danish king is buried in what will one day be Ribe Cathedral.
Erik II is killed by Chief “Sorte Plov”, a local nobleman whose exact reasoning for killing the king is lost to history. Erik II’s three-year reign was marred by infighting and violence, and the Black Plough’s reasoning for killing him could have been anything from avenging his own father (who the king may have killed), or just being mad at the king for siding against him in a legal dispute.
1150-1225 AD, Ribe Cathedral is constructed.
The Cathedral's proper name is “The Church of Our Lady” or “Vor Frue Kirke” in Danish. Originally dedicated to Mary (or Maria), the mother of Jesus; the church was constructed in a Romanesque style with a flat wood ceiling, originally designed as a three aisled basilica.
The ability to make clay bricks becomes more widespread in Denmark around this time. The oldest bricks were smaller but grew larger by the year 1200. All subsequent cathedral building additions made after 1200 are made with brick. The sandstone blocks are from the Weser River in Westfalen, which are used by stonemasons to make fine carvings. The Volcanic Tufa stone is sourced from a quarry owned by the Bishop of Cologne. The Granite boulders are used for plinths and corner stones. Dark and Heavy chalkstone is from quarries near Tournai in present-day Belgium. The first stone churches in Denmark are made from calcareous tufa which is hard to find. Excavations find well-preserved oak timbers from the Viking and Middle Ages also still present in the church. The street level around the church has raised 1.5 meters over time, leaving the church in a depression despite originally being built on a rise. Ribe Cathedral is believed to be the oldest cathedral in Denmark.
The various types of stone and rock used to construct the church over time, as displayed in the Cathedral's museum.
The Cathedral as it looks as of June 2025.
1145 AD, The Cathedral chapter and school are founded, known as the “Ribe Katedralskole” today.
The school is still in operation as of 2025. The oldest still surviving building from the school was built in the 1400s and it is one of the oldest schools in the world.
While I was visiting with the Danish family in June of 2025, I was able to watch one of the cousins receive the first part of her graduation celebrations from this school! Danish graduates are often given a special cap with different colored bands around the edge depending on what their area of study was. The caps also have embroidery with the name of the student inside. According to one source I found, the caps “cost about 2400 Danish crowns, or 350 US dollars.”
When I was sitting in the courtyard witnessing the cousin receiving her graduation cap, I had no idea the school she was graduating from was almost nine hundred years old! I thought the high school my grandma graduated from was old, but the first location she attended was only built in 1909, a literal baby compared to the Ribe Katedralskole.
The top photo is a screenshot from Google Maps of the school's courtyard. When I first saw this image on Google my mind was blown because I instantly recognized it from the graduation festivities I had attended. The second photo is of my fiancé and I sitting with the confetti we were evidently not allowed to set loose, and the third photo is of the graduate and her family posing for a photo with her cap on in front of the school's apparently famous red door. Trying to imagine how many students have graduated from an eight hundred and eighty year old school is also completely unfathomable to me!
1175 AD, The Vilslev Church is constructed.
The town of Vilslev existed before the church's construction, but unlike Ribe I have been unable to locate an exact date for when the town was founded. This church is dedicated to St Nikolaj (St Nicholas), who protects skippers and fisherman and is the patron saint of children, also known as the inspiration behind Santa Claus. Vilslev’s church’s construction was similar to Ribe Cathedral's earlier construction and that is how the date of Vilslev Church's building was established.
Vilslev Church as it appeared in June 2025.
1205 AD, The beautiful and legendary Queen Dagmar arrives in Ribe.
1212 AD, Dagmar dies in Ribe.
Dagmar was queen to Valdemar II known as either The Victorious or The Conqueror. Whether or not Dagmar was a historical figure is questioned on monuments in Denmark but online she is listed as having an official birth and death date so…I'm a little confused as to what part of her story is classified as legend and what part is known as fact. There is even a listing of her burial place and that a golden cross was found on her breast in her tomb in the 1600s. She is said to have died in childbirth. Dagmar is not mentioned in her husband's Encyclopedia Britannica article.
According to the Cathedral Museum, this small artifact is a reliquary cross that would have once held a piece of the "True Cross", meaning the cross that was used to crucify Jesus. Apparently the piece of the True Cross has gone missing sometime in the past few centuries, but still an interesting artifact!
1225 AD, The first Maria Tower is built at Ribe Cathedral.
1228 AD, St Catherine’s Monastery is first constructed with the Black Friar’s Monastery in Ribe.
1225-1250 AD, Frescoes are added to walls of the Vilslev church.
1231 AD, The Oldest Sepulchral Monument in Scandinavia is erected in Ribe Cathedral, a monument to King Valdemar II’s son who died.
1232 AD, The Franciscan Monastery is founded in Ribe.
1241 AD, The Jyske Lov, or the Law of Jutland, is passed into law by Valdemar II; this law codex covered the Danish kingdoms with parts of present-day Germany as well.
Before 1250 AD, Parts of Ribe Cathedral are replaced by brick Gothic arches as styles change with the times.
After 1250 AD, New chapels are added to the north and south aisles of the cathedral.
1259 AD, King Christopher I dies under “mysterious circumstances” and is buried at the cathedral.
He was possibly poisoned for political purposes, but no one knows for certain today. He was only forty years old when he died.
1271 AD, Layers of burnt earth in the archaeological record reveal major fires in Ribe around this time.
1283 AD, The North Cathedral Tower collapses on Christmas morning, killing many people who had come to church for mass.
14th Century AD, The First Night Watchmen take to the streets of Ribe.
These men were responsible for protecting the town and keeping order during the night. They also sang songs for every hour of the evening, helping the townsfolk keep time in an era when clocks and watches were few and far between.
A modern actor hired to show tourists and locals alike a glimpse into what the Night Watchmen looked and sounded like. This photo was snapped by my future uncle-in-law on the steps of Ribe Cathedral in June 2025.
1320 AD, Riberhus, a castle built on the outskirts of Ribe, is first documented in the historical record.
Riberhus was a four winged building with spires and towers. The ruling King’s bailiff attended the king’s investments in Ribe from the castle. To the northwest, the castle had a view of the marsh landscape. To the south is the Medieval town with the Cathedral at the center, still visible today as it would have been when the castle was constructed. Archaeologists believe the castle was built on an eight meter high mound and was square shaped; approximately 90 meters by 90 meters at the base and surrounded by a 30 meter wide moat.
Riberhus's ruins as they appeared in 2025, with the cathedral visible in the background.
1330 AD, The Commoner’s Tower, or “Borgertårnet” in Danish, is built at Ribe Cathedral.
The tower was originally crowned with a four sided spire, but this was destroyed when the northwest corner of the tower collapsed later on.
A Diagram depicting the various floors within the Commoner's Tower as it appears in the modern day.
1333 AD, The First Storm Bell is added to the cathedral and the Commoner’s Tower is inaugurated.
The storm bell was originally used to warn Ribe’s residents of oncoming inclement weather like storms, floods, fire, etc.
1397 AD, The Kalmar Union is established, uniting Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden under one crown, that of Margrethe I.
1402 AD, A fire breaks out and damages the Ribe Cathedral.
The chapels are rebuilt with double aisles, making the church a five-aisled structure, the only such building in all of Denmark.
1436 AD, The Maria Bell is inscribed and placed in Ribe Cathedral.
“In September 1436, church funds paid for me to be cast. Let the bell, when consecrated, be called Maria. Hinrik Dobbran cast me.” The inscription is written in Low German and Latin. There is also a small relief on the bell of Maria (Mary) and her child (Jesus). The bell’s diameter is 132 centimeters. Despite the bell still hanging in the church, it no longer rings.
The Maria Bell as it appeared when I visited the Cathedral in 2025.
1450 AD, St. Catherine’s Priory, or "Sct Catharinae Kirke" in Danish, opens.
The priory is one of the oldest and best-preserved monastic buildings in Scandinavia.
The priory as photographed by Tanya Dedyukhina, posted on Wikimedia Commons.
1475 AD, The oldest surviving artwork in Ribe Cathedral is placed.
1496 AD, The town hall (today known as Old Town Hall) is constructed in Ribe, one of Denmark’s oldest still surviving municipal buildings.
The Old Town Hall, photographed by Sydvestjyske Museer.
During the 16th Century AD, Ribe's use as a major trade network begins to die out, thanks to the Reformation, sand buildup in the river, plague, fires, flooding, and warfare all contributing to Ribe's economic demise.
Mid-1500s AD, The corner of the second or third story of the Cathedral's Commoner’s Tower is turned into a gun placement as war with Sweden breaks out. (Sources differ as to which floor of the building was used).
1500 AD, St. Catherine’s School is first built in Ribe.
1523 AD, Sweden breaks from the Kalmar Union.
1536 AD, The Reformation sees fourteen Catholic churches, chapels, and monastic buildings demolished in Ribe.
The properties are taken over by the king, and only Ribe Cathedral and St. Catherine’s Priory survive. The priory later becomes the town’s first public hospital. After the Reformation, services in Danish begin to be performed in Ribe Cathedral for the first time.
It is hard to tell in the video, but all Ninety-Five of Martin Luther's original theses have been hung up inside of Ribe Cathedral.
1550 AD, The Bible of King Christian III is printed.
This is the first Bible ever printed in Danish and is held in the Cathedral’s Museum today (photo below).
1569 AD, The first royally authorized Danish hymn book is published, written by Hans Thomesen and held in the Cathedral's museum today (photo below).
1572 AD, Johanne Rygge is burned after being found guilty of witchcraft, the first witch to be killed in Ribe.
1577 AD, Giertrud Povels from Hviding is brought to Ribe, tried for witchcraft twice, found guilty, and burned. Maren Christens Praekfader is also found guilty and burned that same year.
1580 AD, Fire breaks out in Ribe.
The fire destroys 213 houses and eleven streets. Houses built after the fire still stand to this day in part thanks to no major fires breaking out since then.
1581 AD, Anders Sørensen Vedel settles in Ribe and composes “Hundredvisebogen” or "100 Danish Ballads", and creates the “Complete History of Denmark” written in the Danish language.
1590 AD, Catharina Larsdatters is convicted of witchcraft and burned.
1594 AD, The northwest corner of the Commoner’s Tower of the Ribe Cathedral collapses.
The tower's collapse damages the first storm bell and causes the spire to fall. As of 2025, the tower is approximately fifty-two meters tall and is between 239 and 248 steps to the top. When I visited, my fiancé and I counted 239 steps, but an online source says it is 248 steps to the top of the tower.
1595 AD, Maren Povlsdatter is beheaded with an axe after being found guilty of witchcraft and failing to comply with her banishment from Ribe.
1599 AD, The Storm Bell is recast after it was damaged in the collapse five years earlier.
The Storm Bell is recast at the Bishop’s Palace at Bispegade, and then dragged to the cathedral “by a flock of scholars” from the school (yes that was the actual phrase used by the source I read online!). The Bell is 147 centimeters in diameter and weighs 3 tons. The Danish inscription on the bell reads “Anno 1599 Did Ribe have this bell cast when Albert Friis was Lord Lieutenant and Ib Thornom and Kjeld Jørgensen Mayors” and the inscription in Low German reads “Out of the fire was I poured, master bell founder Melchior Lucas in Husum did cast me in God’s name. Eternal is The Word of the Lord.”
The Storm Bell as it appears in the Cathedral in 2025.
During the 17th Century, Riberhus's demolition begins with the castle's materials reused elsewhere in town. Ribe itself also further loses its economic importance, and so very few houses are built in the old part of town after the 1500s, allowing houses built between 1580 and 1600 to still stand to this day.
1610 AD, Plans for the new Commoner’s Tower are abandoned.
The flat roof that had been built after the initial collapse remains to this day and the walls are built to the tower’s current height. The outer walls measure approximately 9.2 by 9.2 meters, while the third story measures 10.5 by 10.5 meters. The top of the Commoner’s Tower is the highest point in all of Ribe, and visitors can climb to the top to this day to see the town and its surroundings thanks to Denmark's very well known flat geography.
Above photos and video show the view from the top of the tower as of 2025.
1610 AD, Ingeborg Harchis is found guilty of witchcraft and burned in Ribe.
1613 AD, Anne Lourops from Fanø is accused and found guilty of witchcraft and burned in Ribe.
12 Oct 1617 AD, The Sorcery Decree officially bans all uses of Magic in Denmark.
1618 AD, "Limp" Sidsel Jensdatter is found guilty and burned as a witch in Ribe.
1620 AD, The Pulpit is added to Vilslev's Church.
7 Aug 1620 AD, Birthe Olufsdatter is found guilty and burned as a witch in Ribe.
12 Sept 1620 AD, Karen Roeds is found guilty and burned as a witch in Ribe.
31 Oct 1620 AD, Johanne Moltisdatter is found guilty and burned as a witch in Ribe.
Somewhere between 1625-1650 AD, The Organ in Vilslev church is painted (the source didn't have an exact date!).
11-12 October 1634 AD, The famous Burchardi Flood leaves damage in Vilslev Church and Ribe Cathedral, along with killing thousands of people.
Unfortunately despite this source being dubbed as "famous" online, the only online sources I could find about the flood are all Wikipedia based, and Wikipedia itself says their article needs additional sources to verify information.
With that said, what I was able to ascertain was that between eight and fifteen thousand people drowned in the horrific flood. The major difference in numbers is because eight thousand people listed in the Parish records are said to have died, while historians estimate up to fifteen thousand may have died overall. The flood hit during the Thirty Years’ War which had already devastated the area, making the flood damage that much worse.
Quotes from Wikipedia:
“On Strand alone at least 6,123 people (or 2/3 of the entire population of the island) and 50,000 livestock lost their lives due to 44 dike breaches. The water destroyed 1,300 houses and 30 mills. All 21 churches on Strand were heavily damaged, 17 of which were completely destroyed. Almost the entire new harvest was lost. And the island of Strand was torn apart, forming the smaller islands Nordstrand and Pellworm and the halligen Südfall and Nordstrandischmoor. The Nübbel and Nieland halligen were submerged in the sea.
On the Eiderstedt peninsula, 2,107 people and 12,802 livestock drowned and 664 houses were destroyed by the flood according to Heimreich's chronicle. Heimreich counts 383 dead in Dithmarschen. 168 people died, 1,360 livestock were lost, and 102 houses "drifted away"...in Busen parish (today's Büsum) and the areas along the mouth of the river Eider. Numerous people were killed in the coastal marshlands and victims were recorded even in settlements in the back-country like Bargum, Breklum, Almdorf or Bohmstedt. Even in Hamburg dikes broke in the Hammerbrook and Wilhelmsburg quarters. In Lower-Saxony, the dike of Hove broke at a length of 900 m.”
“In southwestern Jutland, the Danish town of Ribe (a historically very important location and the main and largest town in that region) was entirely flooded and all dikes were penetrated. The Ribe Cathedral, which is located at a high point in the town that is c. 4 m (13 ft) above normal sea level, was flooded by 1.6–1.8 m (5–6 ft) of water. Although southwestern Jutland has experienced several severe floods, this is the highest ever recorded (also exceeding the historical Saint Marcellus's flood and the modern Cyclone Anatol flood) and today it is marked as the top point on a flood pillar in Ribe. Markings after the flood can also still be seen on the cathedral's walls. Limited data is available on the number of fatalities, but in Nørre Farup parish (just north of Ribe) about half the population drowned and there were records of people drowning as far as inland as Seem, normally located 14 km (8.7 mi) from the sea.”
10 November 1641 AD, Maren Spliids is burned after being found guilty of witchcraft in Ribe. A memorial plaque has been installed on what used to be her home at Sønderportsgade 3, Ribe.
14 December 1641 AD, Anna Thomasdatter is found guilty and burned as a witch in Ribe.
1643-August 1645 AD, A Swedish army company entrenches itself outside of Riberhus Castle to the north west of the cathedral.
The Danes fire at the Swedes from the top of the Cathedral. The Swedes shoot back and damage some of the church balusters. The balusters are replaced with wood bound in copper which remain to this day. This conflict was called the “Torstenson War," after the Swedish field marshal who led the conflict.
April 1652 AD, Anna Bruds is the last woman convicted and then burned for witchcraft in Ribe
1658 AD, Riberhus is destroyed by the Swedish.
That same year, Denmark is forced to cede land areas including the provinces of Skåne, Halland and Blekinge to Sweden, where they remain to this day. The humiliating losses help perpetuate a more absolute monarchy in Denmark for the next few centuries.
Some of what remains of Riberhus as photographed in 2025 above.
1659 AD, The Plague kills 900 people in Ribe between 9 June and 28 October of that year.
1661 AD, The Højesteret is established, the Danish Supreme Court.
Surprisingly this new higher court did not end the witch hunts in parts of the country outside of Ribe (the last Danish witch was killed in 1693).
1683 AD, The Jyske Lov is replaced with Christian V’s “Danish Law” in Denmark, but the Jyske Lov remains in effect in Schleswig (in Germany) until 1900.
Part of the 1683 law vehemently denies the rights of LGBT people to have relations, with the translated wording being “intercourse that is against nature is punished with fire and flames.”
1687 AD, Ribe’s First Mayor is Given the Vilslev Church by the Danish crown.
1696 AD, Tower clocks are added to Ribe Cathedral's Commoner's Tower.
The clocks are connected to four clock dials within the tower and also trigger the mechanism for hour and quarter strikes and chimes four times daily. The clock has always been driven by two weights—when fully extended they reach six meters down to the floor below. The clock is wound daily with no fewer than 348 turns of the handle to the left.
Above is a photo of the 1696 Bells, which I was able to witness being rung while I visited the Cathedral in June 2025.
1780 AD, David Grønlund publishes a book entitled Historical Information About the People Persecuted and Burned in Ribe Town for Witchcraft
1784 AD, Social reforms across the kingdom help the peasants gain more control over their lives from wealthy landlords.
1786 AD, Vilslev’s residents purchase the church to retain ownership of it in the town itself.
That same year, my fiance's ancestors build a farmhouse that members of the family still live in to this day. I got to stand inside of the house when I visited in June of 2025, and wow was that cool!
The family farmhouse as it appeared in June 2025.
1790 AD, The first Maria Tower at the Ribe Cathedral is demolished due to structural damage and poor maintenance. The original Maria Bell once hung in the first iteration of the Maria Tower, but the bell was moved to the sixth story of the Commoner's Tower around this time.
Early 1800s AD, The Cathedral's storm bell stops swinging out of fear that the bell might destabilize the tower. A mechanical hammer is installed and strikes the bell from one to twelve times to signal the hour for town residents.
1814 AD, Norway’s sovereignty is transferred to Sweden away from Denmark.
Universal primary education is adopted in Denmark in this year as well.
1848-1851 AD, Denmark goes to war with the German Confederation over the duchies of Schleswig, Lauenburg, and Holstein. Denmark wins and retains control of all three. The King declares himself a constitutional monarch during this time.
1848 AD, The Second Maria Tower Bell is cast, both bells hang in the Commoner’s Tower until the Maria Tower is reconstructed. The bells are rung every morning and evening for three to four minutes followed by chimes, and are used to call people to divine service and other religious ceremonies.
Editor's Note: I'm a little confused about the Maria Tower bells. Only one hangs in the Cathedral today (as far as I am aware), but I don't know if its the first or second bell. Logically I would think it is the second, but because of the way the bell is positioned in the tower itself I really don't know.
Maybe one hangs in the Commoner's Tower (where I walked on my visit to the Cathedral), and maybe the other is in the Maria Tower? I really don't know. Hopefully I will be able to visit the Cathedral again someday and take better notes, because the online sources don't really explain this discrepancy. Anyways, wanted to add that in there in case anyone else is confused!
1849 AD, Jacob A Riis is born in Ribe. He later immigrates to the USA and becomes a journalist.
1849 AD, The Danish Constitution is written and signed into law.
This constitution separates the Supreme Court from the Crown’s power and removes the absolute power of the Danish crown, turning the country into a constitutional monarchy. Only four amendments have been added since 1849.
1855 AD, Ribe’s oldest provincial museum is founded.
1856 AD, St Catherine’s School closes after four hundred and six years. The building still stands despite the school's closure.
1864 AD, Southern Jutland is taken over by the German Confederation, which takes the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, but Ribe remains a Danish town.
1864-1920 AD, The River Kongeåen separates the towns of Vilslev and Jedsted. Vilslev is in the Kingdom of Denmark and Jedsted in the German Duchies.
1866 AD, Christian V’s law is updated somewhat, doing away with the death penalty for LGBT couples and instead changing the punishment to hard labor.
1875 AD, The railroad arrives in Ribe.
1882-1904 AD, Ribe Cathedral undergoes major restoration work. The Maria Tower reaches its current appearance (as of 2025) during this time.
1884 AD, Jacob Frederich Kinch publishes Ribe Town History and Description.
1886 AD, Two large supporting arches are added to the cathedral after the structure was found to be in imminent danger of collapse. The arches fixed this issue by adding stability to the building.
1887 AD, Niels Petersen (of the Petersen House Fame) returns to Vilslev from Arizona and recruits his cousin Hans Peter (my fiancé's great-great-grandfather), with two other men, to settle land in what is today Tempe, Arizona. Petersen paid for the men's passage to the United States and their debt is paid back by working the land.
1899 AD, Denmark’s first preservation society is founded in Ribe, helping ensure the town's historic buildings survive to present-day.
A street in Ribe showing historic buildings as well as the Cathedral.
1901/1902 AD- Hans Peter returns to Vilslev and marries Kirstine, abandoning plans to return to Arizona. The couple will have seven children, including three sons who will eventually move to Arizona.
1902 AD- The Last Night Watchman goes off duty in Ribe.
1905 AD, The “Ribelund” is established, a welfare program for the psychologically and physically disabled.
1911 AD, The Ribe Seminarium, or the Teacher Training College, is established.
1913 AD, A statue of Queen Dagmar is erected on the Riberhus grounds, made to commemorate the 700th anniversary of her death in Ribe.
Photos of the statue as it appears on the Riberhus grounds as of 2025.
1915 AD, Vilslev church becomes independent, and remains so as of 2025.
1918 AD, Iceland becomes independent from Denmark.
1919 AD, The Danish Prosecution Service is created as a way to clearly divide up the duties between the prosecutor, the investigating judges, and the police which was unclear before the creation of this law.
Imagine that, it was “unclear” how to settle and investigate criminal cases in Denmark for over a millennium apparently!
1920 AD, The Northern piece of Schleswig returns to Danish control following the end of World War I (Denmark remained neutral throughout the course of the war).
1921 AD, My fiance's great-grandfather (one of Hans Peter's sons) emigrates to the United States, aged only seventeen. He eventually makes his way to Arizona to work for Niels Petersen like his father before him.
1928 AD, My fiancé's great-grandfather becomes a naturalized US citizen.
1931-1933 AD, Further Ribe Cathedral Restoration takes place.
1933 AD, The Carillon Bells are added to the Cathedral. Originally there are seven bells, which play “Queen Dagmar’s Death” at 12 and 3 PM every day.
1935 AD, Ribe’s tourism society revives the Night Watchman, as a tour for visitors to learn about the ancient practice.
They have continued to do so (save for during World War II) to this day, and I was able to watch one of these tours when I visited in 2025.
1938 AD, Two more Carillon Bells are added to the cathedral. The additional bells allow for “Now Found is the Sweetest of Roses” to be played at 8 AM and 6 PM every day.
9 April 1940 AD, Denmark is invaded by Germany and remains occupied throughout the course of World War II.
1940-1941 AD, Archaeological excavations take place at Riberhus, revealing the lower part of the tower, which was uncovered and preserved and remains visible today.
Excavations show the castle used to be a complex of irregularly shaped buildings on a paved courtyard, with a drawbridge and gatehouse near the present-day river crossing.
Above are photos of my fiance and I exploring the ruins of Riberhus as they appear in 2025, as well as the information plaque installed at the site as well.
5 May 1945 AD, Denmark is liberated from Nazi rule.
1953 AD, Denmark changes Greenland’s status from a colony to a district, allowing further control of the island to go to its citizens living on Greenland itself.
1963 AD, Ribe’s Preservation Society “Gammelt Praeg Ribe Bybevaring” places more than 100 houses in the old part of town under national preservation laws.
This means the outside of the structures, when repaired or restored, must be made to look exactly as they were when first constructed (or maintained to what they looked like when the new rules went into effect at least). The society also pays for the Night Watchman Tours to be maintained.
Above photos are examples of Ribe's current appearance, allowing visitors to feel as though they are being transported to the past. Photos taken by my future uncle-in-law in June of 2025.
1972 AD, Denmark joins the EEC, later renamed the European Union.
Denmark is also a founding member of the United Nations and joined NATO.
1973 AD, Denmark reverses its “Dance Ban.”
Before 1973, it was illegal for two men to dance together as a way to curb LGBT couples from, well, being gay in public I guess.
1979 AD, Denmark cedes governmental control of Greenland to her own people.
1980 AD, My fiancé's great-grandfather passes away in Arizona and his body is transported back to his home town of Vilslev.
When we visited the family graves (which are in the Vilslev Church graveyard), I learned that Denmark, like other European countries, practice "grave leasing." Evidently when you pay the church to be buried in the churchyard, your headstone isn't guaranteed to remain in-situ forever. From what my future grandmother-in-law could remember, headstones are guaranteed a spot for twenty-five to thirty years, but after that the family has to keep paying the church to keep it in place. Here is a photo of my fiancé's great-grandfather's grave (edited for privacy reasons), as well as the pile of headstones at the edge of the graveyard.
I couldn't find specifics on grave leasing in Vilslev, but here are some other sources for people wanting to learn more:
https://cphpost.dk/2016-05-25/news/prices-rising-at-danish-cemeteries/
1983 AD, The latest artwork (as of 2025) is placed in Ribe Cathedral.
1986-1994 AD, The Hviding Manor is excavated (and later reconstructed at the VikingeCenter as chronicled above).
1992 AD, The Ribe VikingeCenter opens.
The park is a twelve hectare area representing Viking culture from approximately 700-1000 AD, surrounded by a 3000 meter willow fence and has 200 hand sewn suits, twenty-five historic buildings, and hosts twelve major events per season. Below is a video of the Midsommer Festival that took place in June 2025.
Another aspect of the VikingeCenter I found really interesting is that local schoolchildren will often volunteer in the center, to learn more about their cultural history by literally living it! You can spot the kids by their brown outfits they wear over their street clothing.
June 1995 AD, The Ribe Viking Museet (Museum) opens.
Excavations done on the site before the museum opened revealed finds dating all the way back to the 700s AD, including several waste pits and what may have been a farm belonging to the Danish king in the 1200s. The museum houses around 14,000 objects from the Viking Period.
2000 AD, The top of the Commoner’s Tower at Ribe Cathedral begins to rent space to a local telecommunications company.
2007 AD, Ribe County, Ribe Judicial District, and Ribe’s Municipality are abolished.
This major overhaul of the Danish judicial system reduced the number of judicial courts in the country from eighty-two to just twenty-four as part of the Police and Judiciary Reform Act of 2007.
2008-2013 AD, Excavations at Ribe Cathedral give new insight into early Christianity in Denmark.
The finds included burials from the 9th century of local people—definitively proving the Danes began to convert to Christianity 100 years before Harald Bluetooth publicly converted and pushed for his people to follow.
2010 AD, Ribe celebrates its 1300th birthday!
A mural was painted in the VikingeCenter's þing Hall to celebrate the momentous occasion. The mural is 20 meters long and depicts the founding of Ribe. Paints used in the mural were made of Earth pigments bound with chalk in the traditional Viking way; even ultramarine, which is from ground up lapis lazuli. The figures and style within the mural are taken from the surviving runic carvings and woven imagery from the Viking Era. I took a video of the mural while I was at the center, but it isn't the best quality, so I am also including a photo of the mural from the VikingeCenter's website, which can be looked at in its original format here.
2014 AD, The Viking-era grave which revealed a man with a fully-equipped warhorse is discovered and excavated near Ribe.
2015 AD, A statue of the Bishop Ansgar is unveiled near the Cathedral.
The Ring Wall Fortress also begins construction in Ribe VikingeCenter.
The Ansgar statue at the Cathedral Grounds as photographed in 2025.
2018 AD, Excavations are Undertaken at the Old Ripa Market Grounds.
The archaeological dig shows the old market grounds were rocky and uneven, with remnants of several large structures still in situ. One of the structures was a workshop, where three amulets or pendants showing the cross of St. Andrew were uncovered, giving further credence to the early Christian roots in Ribe. 252 coins from the era are also discovered around the same time, by accident.
An example of what some of the coins from the 2018 excavation looked like, photo taken from medieval.eu.
2022 AD, Archaeological digs of Ribe up to this point have uncovered over 100,000 artifacts and have dug through 2.5 meters of stratigraphic layers, allowing research to be done decade by decade into the town's storied past.
2022 AD, The Palisade, Gate, four houses, and a courtyard house begin construction inside the ringed fortress at Ribe VikingeCenter. As of 2025 this area was still under construction.
2025 AD, The population of Vilslev is somewhere between 447 and 600 people (depending on which source you believe). Jedsted and Vilslev have also merged into one town despite still being on opposite sides of the river. Today, Vilslev and Ribe are a fifteen-minute car ride away from each other, though most locals will travel by bicycle.
A screenshot from Google Maps showing the distance between Ribe and Vilslev.
2025 AD, Ribe Cathedral holds 2 Michelin Travel Guide Stars, belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran National Church of Denmark, and is Ribe’s Cathedral Parish, with 3200 members.
The Cathedral is the mother church of the largest geographical diocese in Denmark,. Members pay a church tax and are able to use church facilities for weddings, funerals, and other events for free. Each parish has their own elected parish council.
June 2025 AD, I get the chance to visit Denmark for the first time and am inspired to create this timeline of events, and to share all about Ribe with all of you 🙂
The previous two photos were taken by my fiancé and I in the Cimetière de Ribe graveyard, located right behind the Byferie where we stayed in Ribe. Evidently "Fred" means "Peace" in Danish! Also, that is an actual cat that was roaming around the grounds and hopped up to sit on Arnold and Margrethe's headstone. I even made sure to take a photo of Leif Eriksen's headstone as well, because, well, how could you NOT name your child after the man who discovered the New World? (Take that Christopher Columbus!).
I hope you enjoyed this journey through over a thousand years of Danish and Nordic history. As I mentioned in the beginning, I found several articles about the history of Ribe, but none that were as thorough as this one. It has been a labor of love to compile all of this information over the last few months, but I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to not only visit Ribe and Vilslev in person, but also to realize my own blood family's connection to that part of the world as well.
If I have learned anything since meeting my fiancé three years ago, it is that the world is a much smaller place than we usually think it is. So whether or not you have Danish roots yourself, or are just naturally curious about this medieval town, I hope you learned something from this article and have a new appreciation for Vikings, the Medieval Period, the Reformation, or any other aspect of European history that has impacted the town of Ribe.
Below you will find some of my over-arching sources I used for this article, but there were also many others that I used as hyperlink sources throughout the article itself. Any time you see a word that is underlined, just know that if you click on that word or phrase, it will take you to an external source that I used for that particular passage.
Thanks for reading!
Sources:
History of Ribe
https://www.vadehavskysten.com/ribe-esbjerg-fano/experience-ribe/ribes-history
https://www.vadehavskysten.com/ribe-esbjerg-fano/experience-ribe/timeline
https://www.britannica.com/place/Ribe-Denmark
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2025/03/31/the-viking-history-of-ribe-denmarks-oldest-town/
https://www.medieval.eu/the-story-of-viking-age-ribe/
https://www.vadehavskysten.com/ribe-esbjerg-fano/experience-ribe/well-preserved-medieval-town
Viking Age and VikingeCenter
https://www.vadehavskysten.com/ribe-esbjerg-fano/experience-ribe/traces-vikings
https://www.ribevikingecenter.dk/om-ribe-vikingecenter/historien-bag
https://www.ribesvikinger.dk/en/our-history/
https://www.medieval.eu/amazing-treasure-of-viking-coins-discovered-at-ribe/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Viking-people
Ribe Cathedral and St Catherinae's
https://www.ribe-domkirke.dk/visit/cathedral
https://danhostel-ribe.dk/en/ribe-cathedral/
Vilslev
https://esbjerg.eu/new-in-esbjerg/housing/neighbourhoods/vilslev-jedsted
http://www.kongeaastien.dk/en/content/vilslev-church
https://arizonasheephistory.com/2020/12/31/the-thude-family-part-1/
Danish History as a Whole
