The Kongeå () is a watercourse 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 ...

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 ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. It rises southeast of

Vejen Vejen with a population of 10,416 (1 January 2025) is the main town in Vejen Municipality, Denmark. Geography The town is situated in the Danish region of Region of Southern Denmark, Syddanmark between the cities of Kolding and Esbjerg. It is a ...

and Vamdrup and after about it flows through a sluice to tidal mudflats and sandbanks north of

Ribe Ribe () is a town in south-west Jutland, Denmark, with a population of 8,367 (2025). It is the seat of the Diocese of Ribe. Until 1 January 2007, Ribe was the seat of both a surrounding municipality and county. It is now part of the enlarged E ...

, and eventually into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

. The eastern section is little more than a stream, while the western section is navigable by boat as far as the sluice. The Kongeå, however, passes no port or market town of any significance, and small boats use the Ribe Å. Historically, the watercourse has been the administrative border between regions to the north and south. In the Middle Ages it was called ''Skodborg Å'' after the royal castle Skodborghus, where a track crossed the watercourse south of Vejen. For centuries a customs border near the Kongeå separated the Kingdom of Denmark from the

duchy A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important differe ...

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 ...

. From 1864 to 1920, except in the extreme west, the Kongeåen marked the border between Denmark and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The Kongeå is mentioned (as "Skotborg river") in the

Heimskringla () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland. While authorship of ''Heimskringla'' is nowhere attributed, some scholars assume it is written by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (117 ...

in a description of the 1043 battle in which King Magnus I of Norway and Denmark defeated at Lyrskov Hede (''Hlyrskog Heath'') a large army of

Slav The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and N ...

s who had invaded southern Denmark from the current

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Wismar and Güstrow. ...

region in retaliation for a Viking attack on Jomsborg, which at the time was the Slavic kingdom's primary town on

Wolin Wolin (; ) is a Polish island in the Baltic Sea, just off the Polish coast. Administratively, the island belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Wolin is separated from the island of Usedom (Uznam) by the Strait of Świna, and from mainla ...

island. The area around the river is the site of several preserved burial mounds that have been the subject of archeological study, including Skelhøj.

References

Rivers of Jutland {{SouthernDK-stub