OLD CITY

The distances are not excessive: this walking tour will take you through cobbled streets, lined with small half-timbered houses decorated with beautiful doors, every evening from May¹ to September 15. These free guided tours of the city are offered by volunteers with a passion for history, dressed as night watchmen.

This function of watchman had course in Ribe, from the ^XIVth century to the end of the ^XIXth century, to ensure the safety of the cities, in prevention of the fires, the floods, the invasions or other crimes committed at night. The watchman sang to encourage people to turn off their lights and sleep. The tour stops in front of each place of special interest to give some historical explanations in Danish and then in English.

On the chimney of Tåmborg, a red stone Renaissance house (where the musician and clergyman H.A. Brorson lived), a couple of storks are nesting, which you may see, depending on the season (and even better from the top of the cathedral tower). Ribe is the only city in Denmark where they stop!

You should also go to the west of the city, to Riberhus Slotsbanke, the site of a castle destroyed in the ^17th century, of which some ruins and the original moats remain, and where a sculpture was erected in honor of Queen Dagmar. It is a good place to watch the sunset and get another view of the city.

At Christmas time, the city is transformed into a giant Advent calendar and different events are organized.