Visit Roskilde / Denmark - Travel guide of Roskilde

How can you understand Copenhagen, and Denmark more generally, without taking a little trip to Roskilde? Indeed, it all began here, in this town founded at the bottom of the long and narrow fjord that bears his name. It was Harald the Blue Tooth who would have decided around 980 to establish his capital there. Forty years later, the city was the seat of a bishopric whose incumbents were the most powerful men in the country: the best known of them is of course Absalon, who went down in history among other things for having founded Copenhagen.

But the golden age of the city did not survive the transfer of the capital decided by Eric of Pomerania in 1417: the new seat of power was then considered more central since Skåne depended on Denmark. Another hard blow was the Reformation of 1536, which led to the destruction of the city's convents and churches (with the fortunate exception of the cathedral, protected by its status as a royal necropolis). Once again a simple village, Roskilde survived, apart from history, only regaining a certain prosperity with the arrival of the railway in 1847.

Today it is the big suburb of Copenhagen, a lively little town that welcomes tourists with its cathedral and the Viking boats found in its fjord. But the big deal is the rock festival founded in 1971, the most prestigious in Northern Europe, which over the years has programmed big names such as David Bowie, Bob Dylan and the mythical The Who.