Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is the fourth largest

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, with an area of . Located in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

, it is part of

Region Sjælland Region Zealand ( da, Region Sjælland) is the southernmost administrative region of Denmark, established on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which abolished the traditional counties ("amter") and set up five larger regi ...

(Region Zealand). As of 1 January 2022, it has 57,618 inhabitants.statistikbanken.dk. People. Population. (Table) BEF4 (Islands). Danmarks Statistik. Retrieved 25 August 2022.

Overview

Lolland is also known as the "pancake island" because of its flatness: the highest point of the entire island is above sea level, just outside the village of

Horslunde Horslunde is a village on the island of Lolland in south-eastern Denmark. In January 2022 its population was 610. Horslunde is now part of Lolland Municipality and belongs to Region Zealand. Sites of interest in Horslunde include Reventlow-Mus ...

. The island has been an important communication highway, among others for

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Historically, sugar beet has been grown in Lolland. Sugar is still a major industry, visible from the large number of sugar beet fields. The largest

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

of Lolland is

Nakskov Nakskov is a town in south Denmark. It is situated in Lolland municipality in Region Sjælland on the western coast of the island of Lolland. The town has a population of 12,495 (1 January 2022). To the west is Nakskov Fjord, an inlet from the L ...

, with 12,600 residents. Other main towns are

Maribo Maribo is a town in Lolland Municipality in Region Sjælland on the island of Lolland in south Denmark. It was the municipal seat of the former Maribo Municipality, until 1 January 2007, and then it became the seat of the current Lolland Muni ...

(6,000 residents), which hosts the seat of the Diocese of Lolland and Falster,

Sakskøbing Sakskøbing (), previously spelled Sakskjøbing, is a town with a population of 4,595 (1 January 2022).Rødby Rødby is a town, with a population of 1,983 (1 January 2022),Lolland'' covering the western two thirds, and '' Guldborgsund'' uniting the eastern third with the neighbouring island Falster. Lolland has motor and railway links both to the island of Falster to the east and to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

(the German island

Fehmarn Fehmarn (, da, Femern; from Old Wagrian Slavic "''Fe More''", meaning "''In the Sea''") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, after Rüg ...

, linked to the mainland) via ferry.

European route E47 European route E47 is a road (part of the United Nations international E-road network) connecting Lübeck in Germany to Helsingborg in Sweden via the Danish capital, Copenhagen. It is also known as the Vogelfluglinie and the Sydmotorvej. The ro ...

links

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

(Germany) via Lolland.

Transport

Route E47 from Copenhagen crosses the Guldborgsund strait between Lolland and Falster via a modern tunnel, but the motorway currently terminates at

Rødbyhavn Rødbyhavn () is a small town and harbour on the south coast of Lolland, Denmark, with a population of 1,544 (1 January 2022).Vogelfluglinie The (German) or (Danish) is a transport corridor between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hamburg, Germany. As the Danish and German names (literally: '' bird flight line'') imply, the corridor is also an important bird migration route between arctic ...

. During construction of the

Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link The Fehmarn Belt fixed link ( da, Femern Bælt-forbindelsen, german: Fehmarnbelt-Querung) or Fehmarn Belt tunnel is an under-construction immersed tunnel, which will connect the Danish island of Lolland with the German island of Fehmarn, cros ...

however, they currently take the longer way to the mainland via the

Great Belt Bridge The Great Belt Bridge ( da, Storebæltsbroen) or Great Belt fixed link ( da, Storebæltsforbindelsen) is a multi-element fixed link crossing the Great Belt strait between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen. It consists of a road suspension ...

, then

Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...

and

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

. The governments of Denmark and Germany plan to connect Lolland with Fehmarn by a future immersed tunnel, the

. Two older bridges also span the strait between Lolland and Falster, the Frederick IX Bridge and

Guldborgsund Bridge The Guldborgsund bridge ( da, Guldborgbroen) spans the northern end of the Guldborgsund, between the islands of Lolland and Falster in Denmark. The bridge consists of two steel arched spans with a 30m central opening section having two rising ba ...

at the northern end of the strait. Frederick IX bridge is the railway bridge to Falster.

Demography

Towns and villages

Population 1 January 2014.

Attractions

Among the attractions of the island are the 19th century

Fuglsang Manor Fuglsang is a 19th-century manor house now operated by Det Classenske Fideicommis as a cultural centre as an active agricultural estate at Toreby on the island of Lolland, in southeastern Denmark. The estate was owned by members of the de Neerga ...

, and the neighbouring

Fuglsang Art Museum Fuglsang Art Museum ( da, Fuglsang Kunstmuseum) is an art museum set in rural surroundings in Guldborgsund Municipality on the island of Lolland in Denmark. It is part of the Fuglsang Cultural Centre. The museum features Danish art with an empha ...

, which opened in 2008.

Knuthenborg Safari Park Knuthenborg Safaripark is a safari park on the island of Lolland in the southeast of Denmark. It is located 7 km (on Rte 289) to the north of Maribo, near Bandholm. It is one of Lolland's major tourist attractions with over 250,000 visitor ...

north of Maribo is the largest

safari park A safari park, sometimes known as a wildlife park, is a zoo-like commercial drive-in tourist attraction where visitors can drive their own vehicles or ride in vehicles provided by the facility to observe freely roaming animals. A safari park ...

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other g ...

and the

holiday resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resor ...

Lalandia Lalandia is the name of two Danish holiday resorts owned by Parken Sport & Entertainment. The original Lalandia Rødby is located in Rødbyhavn, and based on successful experiences from Rødbyhavn, Lalandia opened a new tropical holiday and activi ...

is a giant indoor

water park A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other baref ...

. Furthermore,

Middelaldercentret Middelaldercentret () is an experimental living history archaeological open-air museum in Denmark, which depicts the middle ages in the Denmark of the late 14th and early 15th centuries. It is located in Sundby Lolland, some 4 km northwest ...

is an

open-air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere� ...

on the most eastern part of the island, just outside

Nykøbing Falster Nykøbing Falster (; originally named Nykøbing) is a southern Danish city, seat of the Guldborgsund ''kommune''. It belongs to Region Sjælland. The city lies on Falster, connected by the Frederick IX Bridge over the Guldborgsund (''Guld ...

. The Centre is an experimental

living history Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to ree ...

museum and it contains a reconstructed part of a medieval town from around 1400. It is among the most authentic reconstructions of the medieval period in Europe, and holds both the largest and the oldest

trebuchet A trebuchet (french: trébuchet) is a type of catapult that uses a long arm to throw a projectile. It was a common powerful siege engine until the advent of gunpowder. The design of a trebuchet allows it to launch projectiles of greater weight ...

s in the world. Lolland has many sandy beaches and areas with summer houses, which are primarily visited by German tourists.

References

* Tageo.com, "VESTSJAELLAND DENMARK Geography Population" (coordinates), 2007, webpage
Tageo-index
* Denmark Postal codes, webpage
Postnumre-DK
* Tele.dk Denmark detailed road map, webpage
Tele-DK-Danmark

External links

{{Authority control Islands of Denmark Geography of Guldborgsund Municipality Geography of Lolland Municipality Region Zealand Danish islands in the Baltic Lolland Municipality Guldborgsund Municipality