Travel Guide Roskilde

Around 980, Harald the Blue Tooth decided to establish his capital here. 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, of course, is Absalon, who has gone down in history, not least for having founded Copenhagen. But the city's golden age didn't survive the transfer of the capital decided by Eric of Pomerania in 1417: the new seat of power was considered more central, since Skåne depended on Denmark. Another blow was the Protestant 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). Now a simple market town, Roskilde struggled to survive on the sidelines of history, only regaining a measure of prosperity with the arrival of the railroad in 1847. Today, it's a bustling little suburb of Copenhagen, welcoming tourists with its cathedral and the Viking ships found in its fjord. But the big deal is the rock festival, founded in 1971 and the most prestigious in Northern Europe, which over the years has programmed the likes of David Bowie, Bob Dylan and the legendary Who.