Christiansfeld, with a population of 2,979 (1 January 2024), is a town in
Kolding Municipality in
Southern Jutland
Southern Jutland (; ) is the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland, Denmark and north of the Eider (river) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The region north of the Kongeå is called . Both territories had their own ting assemblies in the Mi ...
in
Region of Southern Denmark
The Region of Southern Denmark (, ; , ; ) is an administrative region of Denmark established on Monday 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which abolished the traditional counties ("amter") and set up five larger regions ...
. The town was founded in 1773 by the
Moravian Church
The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...
and named after the Danish king
Christian VII. Since July 2015 it has been a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
, highlighting its status as the best-preserved example of the town-planning and architecture of the Moravian Church.
Description
The town was constructed around a central Church Square bordered by two parallel streets running east to west.
The Hall, Sister's House, fire-house, the vicarage, and the former provost’s house were built directly around the square, and shops, Brother's House, family residences, a hotel, and a school were built along the parallel streets.
Many of the residential buildings are communal, which were typical of Moravian settlements and were used by the widows and unmarried women and men of the congregation.
The architecture of Christiansfeld is homogeneous, dominated by one or two-story buildings made out of yellow brick and red tile roofs.
Many of the buildings in Christiansfeld retain their original uses.
History
Most of Christiansfeld was constructed in the years 1773–1800, following a strict city plan that drew inspiration from the earlier Moravian settlements of
Herrnhaag and
Gnadau.
To encourage construction, king Christian VII promised a ten-year tax holiday for the city and paid 10% of the construction costs of new houses.
By 1779, the town's population reached 279, and by 1782, it had about 400 residents.
It was one of many towns in
Schleswig
The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...
officially designated a small
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...
(''flække'').
In 1864, Christiansfeld and the rest of Schleswig was ceded to
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
as a result of Denmark's defeat in the
Second Schleswig War
The Second Schleswig War (; or German Danish War), also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War, was the second military conflict over the Schleswig–Holstein question of the nineteenth century. The war began on 1 Februar ...
. It remained a part of Germany until 1920 when, as a part of a
plebiscite
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a direct vote by the electorate (rather than their representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either binding (resulting in the adoption of a new policy) or adv ...
called for by the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
,
Northern Schleswig
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ra ...
voted to rejoin Denmark. After reunification, the Moravian church lost some of the rights it had obtained as a part of the town's founding in the 18th century. For example, it no longer had the ability to choose the town's leadership, paving the way for the town's first Danish mayor who was not a member of the church in 1920. The church also sold its schools at this time due to the declining membership of its congregation.
From 1970 to 2007, the town was the administrative seat of
Christiansfeld Municipality, but it lost this status and was placed in the
Kolding Municipality as a part of the
Municipal Reform of 2007 (Kommunalreformen 2007).
In 2009
Kolding Municipality and Realdania-foundation agreed on a 100 million DKK restoration project of the inner-city. In 2012 the
A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møllers Fond donated 60 million DKK for the restoration of the Sister's House.
Today
Today, the city is a tourist attraction: the old city core, the Moravian Church with its light, simple and impressive hall and the special cemetery draw thousands of tourists each year. Its well preserved architecture is one of the reasons it was nominated as a tentative
UNESCO World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
in 1993. It was finally inscribed on the main list on 4 July 2015.
The town is famed for its honey cakes. These are baked to a secret recipe from 1783. Until 2008, the cakes were baked in the original 18th-century bakery, which was then renovated because of new national sanitary standards, but still uses the original recipes.
File:Meno Haas - Christiansfeld 1780 - mp001409.jpg, Christiansfeld 1780
File:Gudsageren.jpg, The church cemetery
File:Haderslevvej 29, Christiansfeld 2011.jpg, House in Christiansfeld
Notable people
*
Christian David Gebauer (1777–1831) a German-born Danish animal and landscape painter, brought up in Christiansfeld
*
Carl Fredrik Kiörboe (1799 in Christiansfeld – 1876) a Danish-born Swedish artist, painted animals
*
Johann Christian Gebauer (1808–1884) a Danish composer, organist and music theorist, brought up in Christiansfeld
*
Camilla Collett (1813–1895) a Norwegian writer, maybe the first Norwegian feminist, went to school in Christiansfeld
*
Samuel Kleinschmidt (1814 in Greenland – 1886) a German/Danish missionary, teacher in Christiansfeld 1837–1841
*
Theodor Brorsen
Theodor Johan Christian Ambders Brorsen (29 July 1819 – 31 March 1895) was a Danish astronomer. He is best known for his discovery of five comets, including the lost periodic comet, 5D/Brorsen, and the periodic comet 23P/Brorsen-Metcalf.
...
(1819–1895) a Danish astronomer, discovered of five comets; went to school in Christiansfeld
*
Carl Bock (1849–1932) a Norwegian government official, author, naturalist and explorer; went to school in Christiansfeld
*
Hans Lunding (1899 in Stepping, near Christiansfeld – 1984) military officer and head of the combined army and naval intelligence services; also a bronze medallist in the
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...
*
Henrik Toft (born 1981 in Christiansfeld) a Danish professional footballer, who currently plays for
Kolding BK
* Maya Olesen (born 1991 in Christiansfeld), competitor for Denmark in
Miss World 2011
Miss World 2011 was the 61st edition of the Miss World pageant, held at the Earls Court Two in London, United Kingdom, on 6 November 2011.
Alexandria Mills of the United States crowned Ivian Sarcos of Venezuela as her successor at the en ...
Miss Denmark website (in Danish)
retrieved 2 May 2018
See also
* Christiansfeld Pharmacy
References
External links
Official website of the Christiansfeld Centre
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in the Region of Southern Denmark
History of the Moravian Church
World Heritage Sites in Denmark
Kolding Municipality
Tourist attractions in Kolding Municipality