Odense Municipality () is a Danish municipality ('' kommune'') in Southern Denmark 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 ...

in central

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 ...

. The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 210,803 (1. January 2025). It is the most populous municipality in the region of Southern Denmark. The main town and the site of its municipal council is the city of

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (after Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2025, the city proper had a population of 185,480 while Odense Municipality had a population of 210, ...

. Including the social sector, 17,000 people are employed by the municipality. The municipal budget is 6,881 million DKK as of 2006. The municipality runs 37 schools; Odense is also the home of 13 private schools. Neighboring municipalities are Kerteminde to the east, Faaborg-Midtfyn to the south, Assens to the west, and Nordfyn to the north.

Geography

The Odense municipality is located near the Odense Fjord. The Odense Canal (''Odense Kanal'') flows out from the fjord and forms three

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

s in the city's industrial area. The Odense River (''Odense Å'') also flows out from the fjord and meanders through the municipality, including Odense town center where Sankt Jørgens Park and Munke Mose are located on its banks. The river springs from Lake Arreskov ('' Arreskov Sø'') in Faaborg-Midtfyn municipality. The highest point in the municipality is Dyred Banke which is located at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

History

The municipality, a former "Provincial municipality" was re-created 1 April 1970 as Odense municipality as the result of a ("Municipal Reform") that merged a number of existing ''Provincial''- ''Parish''- and ''Village''- municipalities: Allerup-Davinde, Allese-Næsbyhoved, Broby, Brændekilde, Bellinge, Dalum, Fraugde, Korup-Ubberud, Lumby, Odense, Paarup, Sanderum, Stenløse-Fangel, the "coalition-municipality" of Fjordager (which had been created in 1966 by merging Agedrup and Seden-Åsum municipalities), and Højby parish. Odense municipality was not merged with other municipalities by 1 January 2007 as the result of the nationwide ''Kommunalreformen'' ("The Municipal Reform" of 2007). Before this reform, the list of neighboring municipalities were Langeskov to the east, Munkebo to the northeast, Otterup to the north, Søndersø, Vissenbjerg, and Tommerup to the west, and Broby and Årslev to the south. Odense belonged to Funen County 1970-2006 and before this to Odense County.

Politics

Odense's municipal council consists of 29 members, elected every four years. The municipal council has five political committees.

Municipal council

Below are the municipal councils elected since the Municipal Reform of 2007.

Mayors

Odense's mayor is , representing the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

, since 1 January 2018. The former mayor of Odense Municipality, Anker Boye, is a member of the Social Democratic Party. His first term was from 1993 to 2005 when he was defeated by Jan Boye, a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

. He was re-elected in the 2009 election, forming a coalition with the Red–Green Alliance, the Socialist People's Party and the Social Democrats. The following is a list of mayors since 1792: *Lauritz Martin Bendz (1792–97) *Andreas Rosteen Lindved (1798–1816) *Lauritz Martin Bendz (1816–24) *Christian Reimuth (1824–46) *Christen Estrup (1847–60) *Louis Mourier (1861–77) *G. Koch (1877–97) *J.F. Simony (1897–1900) *Ludvig Dithmer (1900–11) *Valdemar Bloch (1911–19) *J.L. Christensen (1919) *A.P. Henriksen (1919–25) *H. Chr. Petersen (1925–37) *I. Vilh. Werner (1937–58) *Holger Larsen (1958–73) * Verner Dalskov (1973–93) * Anker Boye (1994–2005) * Jan Boye (2006–09) *Anker Boye (2010–2017) * Peter Rahbæk Juel (2018–)

Neighbourhoods and settlements

After the city of Odense itself, the next most populous locations in the Municipality are: The municipality of Odense is divided into 11 different sectors. Neighbourhoods, suburbs and surrounding villages of the city of Odense include: * Agedrup * Allesø * Åløkke * Anderup * Åsum * Blangstedgård * Bolbro * Bullerup * Bellinge * Blommenslyst * Bregnor * Bymidten * Dalum * Dyrup * Elmeluad * Ejlstrup * Fraugde * Fruens Bøge * Hauge * Hjallese * Højby, Funen * Højme * Højstrup * Holmstrup * Hunderup * Kirkendrup * Korsløkke * Korup * Kragsbjerg * Lindved * Lumby * Marienlund * Munkebjerg * Neder Holluf * Næsby * Paarup * Rosengård * Sanderum * Seden * Skibhusene * Skibhuskvarteret * Slukefter * Snestrup * Søhus * Stenløse * Stige * Tarup * Tornbjerg * Ubberud * Villestofte * Vollsmose

The city of Odense

Odense is the third largest city in Denmark, and one of country's oldest settlements. The first record of its existence dates from 988 and the town celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in 1988. The name refers to

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

— ''Odins Vi'' ("Odin's Sanctuary"). The shrine of Canute the Saint was a great resort of pilgrims throughout the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. His relics are still preserved in Saint Canute's Cathedral. In the 16th century the town was the meeting-place of several parliaments, and down to 1805 it was the seat of the provincial assembly of Funen. Denmark's famous author and poet

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

was born in Odense on 2 April 1805. Museums honouring him have been created both in a house in the old part of Odense with a large collection of his works and belongings, and his childhood home, which is also located in the city. Odense also has a museum honouring the classical composer

Carl Nielsen Carl August Nielsen (; 9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931) was a Danish composer, conductor, and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer. Brought up by poor yet musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he d ...

, who was born in Nr. Lynelse near Odense.

Tietgenbyen

Tietgenbyen is a industrial area in Denmark, southeast of

near European route E20. It is named after C.F. Tietgen, a businessman from Odense. It was established in 1999 by Odense Municipality. Businesses had long advocated for an industrial area near the highway. In its early years, Tietgenbyen had difficulty attracting new companies and sold only in 1999 and 2000, but managed to reach its unofficial goal of selling at least within 12 years. In January 2017, it contained 75 companies, and most of its lots had been sold. An area north of Tietgenbyen, known as Tietgenbyen Nord, has been reserved by Odense Municipality for future expansions. The new land is privately owned, and just be bought by the municipality before it can be used industrially. Tietgenbyen contains a

data center A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. Since IT operations are crucial for busines ...

owned by

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

, with an area of 56,500 square meters. A

district heating District heating (also known as heat networks) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heater, space heating and w ...

system is established in connection with the data center, distributing surplus heat to 7,000 houses (planned to be extended to 12,000 houses). Plans to build the data center were first revealed by ''Fyens Stiftstidene'' in October 2016, and confirmed by Facebook and Odense municipality in January 2017. The data center is Facebook's third outside the United States. It started operating in September 2019, although only partially. According to ''Fyens Stiftstidende'', Facebook is ready to extend it with a third server building, and is considering adding two more. A number of robotics firms are in Tietgenbyen, including Universal Robots, Jorgensen Engineering, and ABB. Archeological excavations prior to building Tietgenbyen found a number of settlements from the

bronze age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

Transportation

The municipality is connected with all points on the island with an extensive system of roads, including the major E20 Funish Motorway (''Fynske Motorvej'') which runs across the island through the town of Odense and connect the island on the east to the island of

Zealand Zealand ( ) is the largest and most populous islands of Denmark, island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size) at 7,031 km2 (2715 sq. mi.). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 Januar ...

over the Great Belt Bridge and on the west to the Danish mainland,

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 ...

over the Little Belt Bridge. A motorway built 2006-2009 connects Odense to the island's second-largest city, Svendborg, which also has a railroad connection ( Svendborgbanen). The town of Odense is also a major stop on the national railroad system lines.

References

External links

*
Odense tourism bureau

List of twin cities and towns

Krak searchable/printable map
outline of municipality does not print out!) {{Authority control Municipalities of the Region of Southern Denmark Municipalities of Denmark