Cemeteries, mausoleums and burial places in Denmark
Lindholm Høje
Lindholm Høje (Lindholm Hills) is a major Viking burial site and former settlement situated to the north of and overlooking the city of Aalborg. The southern (lower) part of Lindholm Høje dates to 1000 – 1050 AD, the Viking Age, while the northern (higher) part is significantly earlier, dating back to the 5th century AD. An unknown number of rocks were removed from the site over the centuries, many, fo ...Kong Asgers Høj
Kong Asgers Høj (King Asgers Mound) is a large passage grave on the island of Møn. It was built in the Late Stone Age (3000 BC - 1500 BC) and has a 10 meters long narrow passage leading into to the grave chamber. The grave chamber is 10 meters long and 2 meters wide and was when in use a common grave. When somebody died the grave was opened, the deceased was buried, and the grave was closed again. Kong Asger ...Egtved Girl Mound
The Egtved Girl (c. 1390–1370 BC) was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved in 1921. Aged 16–18 at death, she was slim, 160 cm tall, had short, blond hair and well-trimmed nails. Her burial has been dated by dendrochronology to 1370 BC. She was discovered in a barrow approximately 30 metres wide and 4 metres high. Only the girl"s hair, brain, teeth, nails and ...Klekkende Høj
Klekkende Høj is a megalithic tomb which dates possibly from the Neolithic Age, ca. 4500 years ago. It one of the best preserved of more than 100 burial mounds on the island. The tomb is a passage grave, which means that the central chamber within the mound is reached by a connecting passage. Klekkende Høj is unusual in that there are two entrance passages running approximately parallel to each other, facing ...Borum Eshøj
Borum Eshøj is one of the largest Bronze Age mound sites in Denmark. Three graves were found from there dating back to about 1350 BC. The bodies lay in their coffins of hollowed out oak tree trunks in graves that are among the most important prehistoric finds. The oak coffin graves were excavated in the 1870s and are now on show at the National Museum of Denmark. The areas once had more than 40 barrows but most hav ...Kong Humbles Grav
Kong Humbles Grav ("King Humble"s Grave") is one of Langelands most well-known prehistoric dolmens. It is about 55m long and 9m wide. Around the sides of the long barrow there are set of 74-77 kerb stones. The archaeological excavation has revealed c. 4000 years old human bones in the grave. The grave name is misleading, because the King "Humble" is believed to lived in c. 300-400 AD.Bøgebakken
Bøgebakken is a Mesolithic cemetery of the Ertebølle culture, one of the oldest known in Denmark. It dates to ca. 6000 BC and contains graves of 22 persons. The cemetery comprises one empty grave, sixteen single burials, two double and one triple burial. Both double burials consist of a female and an infant, perhaps women who died in childbirth. The richest burial of Vedbæk is that of one of the juveni ...Skelhøj
Skelhøj is a burial mound from the early Bronze Age, built in about 1350 BC. Archaeologically it was excavated between 2002 and 2004.Langdos Burial Mound
Langdøs (Langdysse) is the largest bronze age burial mound in Denmark. The burial mound is 175 metres long and was built between 1800 and 1000 BC. The "Langdøs man" was once believed to live in the barrow. Around Easter, pins were placed into the mound by children who then played around it. Part of the barrow has been damaged due to building activities within the city.Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Historic Site of the week
Cochem Castle
The original Cochem Castle, perched prominently on a hill above the Moselle River, served to collect tolls from passing ships. Modern research dates its origins to around 1100. Before its destruction by the French in 1689, the castle had a long and fascinating history. It changed hands numerous times and, like most castles, also changed its form over the centuries.
In 1151 King Konrad III ended a dispute over who should inherit Cochem Castle by laying siege to it and taking possession of it himself. That same year it became an official Imperial Castle (Reichsburg) subject to imperial authority. In 1282 it was Habsburg King Rudolf’s turn, when he conquered the Reichsburg Cochem and took it over. But just 12 years later, in 1294, the newest owner, King Adolf of Nassau pawned the castle, the town of Cochem and the surrounding region in order to finance his coronation. Adolf’s successor, Albrecht I, was unable to redeem the pledge and was forced to grant the castle to the archbishop in nearby Trier and the Electorate of Trier, which then administered the Reichsburg continuously, except for a brief interruption when Trier’s Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg had to pawn the castle to a countess. But he got it back a year later.
The Electorate of Trier and its nobility became wealthy and powerful in large part due to the income from Cochem Castle and the rights to shipping tolls on the Moselle. Not until 1419 did the castle and its tolls come under the administration of civil bailiffs (Amtsmänner). While under the control of the bishops and electors in Trier from the 14th to the 16th century, the castle was expanded several times.
In 1688 the French invaded the Rhine and Moselle regions of the Palatinate, which included Cochem and its castle. French troops conquered the Reichsburg and then laid waste not only to the castle but also to Cochem and most of the other surrounding towns in a scorched-earth campaign. Between that time and the Congress of Vienna, the Palatinate and Cochem went back and forth between France and Prussia. In 1815 the western Palatinate and Cochem finally became part of Prussia once and for all.
Louis Jacques Ravené (1823-1879) did not live to see the completion of his renovated castle, but it was completed by his son Louis Auguste Ravené (1866-1944). Louis Auguste was only two years old when construction work at the old ruins above Cochem began in 1868, but most of the new castle took shape from 1874 to 1877, based on designs by Berlin architects. After the death of his father in 1879, Louis Auguste supervised the final stages of construction, mostly involving work on the castle’s interior. The castle was finally completed in 1890. Louis Auguste, like his father, a lover of art, filled the castle with an extensive art collection, most of which was lost during the Second World War.
In 1942, during the Nazi years, Ravené was forced to sell the family castle to the Prussian Ministry of Justice, which turned it into a law school run by the Nazi government. Following the end of the war, the castle became the property of the new state of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate). In 1978 the city of Cochem bought the castle for 664,000 marks.