Bågø is a small Danish island located in the

Little Belt The Little Belt (, ) is a strait between the island of Funen and the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. It is one of the three Danish straits, Danish Straits that drain and connect the Baltic Sea to the Kattegat strait, which drains west to the Nor ...

5 km north-west of Assens on the island of

Funen Funen (, ), is the third-largest List of islands of Denmark, island of Denmark, after Zealand and North Jutlandic Island, Vendsyssel-Thy, with an area of . It is the List of islands by area, 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in th ...

belonging to Assens Municipality. With an area of , as of 1 January 2015 it has a population of 25. The island is divided into three low slopes reaching a maximum height of 8 meters above sea level. Essentially an agricultural community, the island's population has decreased drastically since 1950. The village, Bågø By, with its large farm houses lies at the centre of the island. There is a ferry connection with Assens.

Location

On a clear day, a number of other islands can be seen from Bågø:

Als Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and low ...

to the south, Årø and Bastholm to the west and

Brandsø Brandsø is a small, uninhabited Danish island located in Little Belt between Jutland and Funen, 15 km to the north-west of Assens. It has an area of 2.0 km2 it lies in Middelfart Municipality and belongs to the Wedellsborg estate. T ...

to the north.

lies to the east and

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

to the west. Baagoe Kirke fra sydoest

History

The island appears to have been inhabited since the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

as flint tools have been found in the fields and there is evidence of a number old burial mounds. Side-by-side with farming, the island also had an active fishing community but this died out in the middle of the 20th century. The large, well-kept farms in the centre of the island suffered a major disaster in 1880 when three of them were destroyed by lightning. Bågø Church in the northern part of the island was built in 1861 by the Count of Wedellsborg from the nearby Wedellsborg Estate on Funen. The lighthouse on the island's southern tip was built in 1816 and is now a listed building. In 1872, flooding from a storm caused the island to be divided into three smaller sections.

Bågø today

The island has a small church and there is a kiosk at the harbour which is open in the summer. The village at the centre of the island is about 2 km from the harbour. There is no public transport. The harbour itself is a popular venue for pleasure craft, mainly from Denmark and Germany. There is a sandy beach on the south coast. The island is unspoilt and has a rich bird life."Baagø - The Square Island in Lillebælt".
Retrieved 17 June 2010.

In Fiction

The island featured in the 1943 film

We Dive at Dawn ''We Dive at Dawn'' is a 1943 war film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring John Mills and Eric Portman as Royal Navy submariners in the Second World War. It was written by Val Valentine and J. B. Williams with uncredited assistance from F ...

(starring John Mills as Lieutenant Freddie Taylor) under the name of Hågo. It was on this island that, in the film, the British submarine HMS ''Sea Tiger'' is refuelled from a tanker that is in the harbour while Able Seaman Hobson (played by Eric Portman) and some of the crew keep the German garrison at bay. The film depicts no resistance put up by the Danish Merchant crew when "fuel and stores" are requested by ''Sea Tigers captain, as the Danish captain of the tanker saying, "''There will be no argument, the British Navy is always welcome in Denmark.''"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bago Islands of Denmark Geography of Assens Municipality

Location

History

Bågø today

In Fiction

See also

References