Sæby City Tour

The port

The town of Sæby started as a small fishing village at the mouth of the river or stream.

Initially fishermen came around 1400 to fish for herring. Due to the Catholic Church's many fasting periods and the long durability of the salted fish, there were good money in herring fishing.

Also the Catholic bishop in Børglum, which was the largest landowner in Vendsyssel, needed a disembarkation point (outside the market town of Aalborg, where he had to pay taxes and fees) for his agricultural products.

So the Bishop finansed the port and and a small church in Sæby and was of great help to obtain municipality rights and for Sæby to become a borough.

The port today

In the Middle Ages and Renassaince period the harbor was often filled with sand, making it useless.

In the 1870s a dam was built across the river, diverting it around to the north of the harbor.

This, and an expansion in the 1900s created a good harbor in Sæby.

Here was shipyards, the auction, fish export, smokehouses and fish industries.

Today, there is no fishing or maritime industry left in Sæby Harbor - except for a few sea food restaurants!

But one of the largest producers of canned fish - mackerel in tomatosauce is still in Sæby, namely Sæby Fiskeindustri.

Lady from the Sea

The artist Marit Benthe Norheim has found inspiration in the norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen's play The Lady from the Sea and in Sæbys patron saint the Virgin Mary.

The figure is at the same time a mermaid and guardian angel, a double-sided 'Janus Figure' with two faces, which symbolizes the beginning and end, past and present, departure and return.

The local children made their own symbols of protection in ceramics and clay, which has since been cast in glass at Sæbys glass artist.

The sculpture was unveiled in August 2001.

Jewish refugees transport to Sweden during World War 2

During World War 2 Sæby was base for transportion of Jews who fled to Sweden. The refugees were stored in warehouses until the patrolling policeman gave a signal, after which they were smuggled aboard a fishing boat.

At one point the German troops rationed fuel so the fishingboats could only sail out to the fishing banks and back. This meant that they had to meet up with a boat halfway from Sweden.

The refugees who had money paid for the trip, but those who had no money, went for free

The Church and Sæby Carmelite Monastery

The Church was built in 1450 as an ordinary parish church named Saint Mary's Church

But in 1462 the pope approves a plan to establish a Carmelit Monastery in Sæby, so the small church was extended and the monastery built.

The exact year of its foundation is unknown - but in 1572 we know that the monastery exists.

The Carmelite Order (also called the Whitefriars) is considered by the Church to be under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the friars name the town Mariested, meaning the place of Mary.

The monastery attracted new residents to the site, also besides the friars - traders and craftsmen.

Stygge Krumpen - Bishop at Børglum Monastery 1519-1536

The last and best known of the Catholic bishops were Stygge Krumpen, who was bishop from 1519 to the Reformation in 1536

In 1524 Sæby got its municipal charter - the rights of a markedtown, privileges on trading and commerce, and the city got its own magistrates in the form of a bailiff, who in his person combined a major, a judge and a chief of police. As long as the market town belonged to the bishop, the bishop also received the city's taxes - but it lasted so only 12 years - until the Reformation, then the crown took over the properties of the church

Reformation in 1536

At the Reformation in 1536 the monastery was closed and the bishops properties was confiscated by the crown

But the town continued to thrive until the dark period in the 17th and 18th century with climatic changes, migrating sand and devastating Wars, which led to Sæby, as many other small towns, came to sleeping slumber until the end of the 19th century, when the industrial revolution began.

Population

In 1769 there were only 500 inhabitants. The population in 2014 is 8,802

Strandgade

Not surprisingly, Strandgade was back in time home of the fishermen, pilots and a single innkeeper

Until the turn of the 20th century the beach was actually very near to Strandgade. Notice that the houses are very small compared to the houses in Algade, where the merchants and tradesmen lived.

Mogens Juel's Hospital, Strandgade 2

(opposite the church)Mogens Juel's Hospital or the Old Hospital, established in 1565 by Mogens Juel from Knivholt manor and wife.

It is NOT a hospital, but a poorhouse.

The present house built in 1675 after a fire earlier. It had room for eight poor and elderly people almost exclusively women. Today it only one apartment.

Klostertorvet (Monastery Square)

Klostertorvet or Old Square was the towns first marketplace. Also place for the whipping pole (pillory)

The Old Town Hall

At the end of the square is the old town hall, built in the early 1700s and in operation until 1848, when it was replaced by "Retfærdigheden" (meaning Justice).

Originally two storage, but it has collapsed little by little through time due to lack of maintaince.

Rhuus'es Hospital, Algade 20

Another poorhouse. Established by the mayor in 1713. The present house is from 1856. There was room for six residents, today only two apartments.

Algade 18

The neighboring house, Algade 18, housed until 1815 the local school (the Danish school, as opposed to the Grammar school at the church, which was abolished in 1739).

The Danish school was established thanks to mayor Christen Rhuus.

City Hall, courthouse and jail, Algade 14

Constructed 1847-48, and housed until 1919 both municipal administration, courtroom, police station and jail.

The inscription over the front door, "For Justice". The building is reffered to as 'The Justice'.

The mayor lived at Dommergården, Algade 7, where part of the administration of justice probably has taken place.

Until 1919 the mayor was appointet by the crown and functioned as mayor, judge and cheif of police - a bailiff.

From 1919 the mayor was elected by and among the council members, while the functions of judge and police chief were separated. The democratic separation of powers. After 1919 the "Justice" housed only functions as a courthouse and police station.

Today it is commonly owned by shares and used as Tourist Information among others purposes.

Hans Grams Farm, Algade 12-12A

Originally built in 1624 by Mayor Hans Nielsen Gram. It was until around 1950 one building, but were "chopped in half", caused by the road now named Hans Grams Road.

During the Torstensson War (the swedish occupied Sæby) Hans Gram was ordred by the swedish commander to provide a boat and a relably captain og skipper, who were to bring some important letters to Gothenburg. But the mayor and the captain was loyal to Denmark and sail to Copenhagen with the intelligence instead.

When the swedish commander discovered this, he let his troop ravage and plunder Sæby once again.

Dommergården, Algade 7

Dommergården was built in 1840 by a merchant and consul (Christian Abel), and inhabited from 1881 to 1896 by the mayor and bailiff C.C. Ravnkilde, whose daughter Adda Ravnkilde is commemorated on the plate.

She lived from 1862 to 83, and wrote three books on womens search for sexual and social identity. She was fascinated by the famous writer George Brandes and wanted him to read her novels, which he didn't do - something which might have let to her dramatic suicide in 1883. She then living in Copenhagen, where she laid down in the bathtub filled with water, cut her wrist and then shot herself.

Danish writer (George Brandes), didn't take interest in her writing until after her suicide, when he help publish the novels after the had been shortened.

Mejerigården - Dairy farm, Algade 4

Opposite Clasens Manor lies a Dairy farm, Algade 4, built in 1822. 1894-1950 housed the dairy - later soda factory, coffee roasting and kaffebrænderi and antiques shop

Consul Ørums Farm on the corner of Algade and Sondergade

Consul Orums Yard has roots back to the 17th and 18th century, and still has its present form.

In 1787 it was a grocery store and a tavern. It served as the jailhouse or prison for a few years.

In 1860 it was bought by a brewer, who went bankrupt and sold it to stranding commisionar consul Orum, who continued the brewery a couple of years on. He served as Swedish-Norwegian Vice Consul - hence the name of the farm.

In 1917 it housed restaurant and café - and due to the big trees outside called in german "Unter den Linden" - "Under the Linden" (tilia)

Today it is Sæby Museum of local history.

Sæby Watermill

In the Viking Age there has been settlements around the mouth of the stream, approximately wherehow Sondergade crosses the creek. Here lay the local Mill. The weir at the mill has for centuries also been the bridge over the creek.

The current buildings date back to the 1600s. The origin is far older. The mill belonged in the 1600 to the crown, then the manor of Sæbygaard and finally in private ownership.

The mill has been a flour mill, but was rebuilt in 1926 - the large mill wheel was removed and replaced by a turbine supplying a carpentry with power. The mill was closed around 1940

“Harmonien” / "The Harmony"

“Dreng i tanker” / "Thinking Boy" by Sven Bovin, 1976.

Pindborggade

is said to have its name from a dilapidated building, and about turn of the century it was found that it was an ugly name and suggested renaming the street to Noerregade - that didn't pass.

The street's south side is made up mostly of storageroom and workshops for Vestergades businesses