Aggersborg

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Aggersborg Viking Castle
Viking castle in Aggersborg. Photo: Løgstør Kommune

Viking castle in Aggersborg. Photo: Løgstør Kommune

Creation time : Viking age
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: Wall reconstruction
Construction: Palisades, gates, ramparts (and ditches)
Place: Aggersborg
Geographical location 56 ° 59 '40 "  N , 9 ° 15' 24"  E Coordinates: 56 ° 59 '40 "  N , 9 ° 15' 24"  E
Aggersborg (Denmark)
Aggersborg
Golden bracelet, find.

Aggersborg is Denmark's largest Viking castle . It is located in Nordjylland on Aggersund north of the Limfjord and was archaeologically opened between 1945 and 1948. The next larger town is Aggersund about 2.5 km northeast, the next bigger town is Aars , about 30 km southeast.

Dating

The complex is difficult to date, especially since there is a settlement with pits and long houses from the 9th and 10th centuries. Their house shapes resemble those of the castle. But there were no fire pits in the houses, so they could hardly have been used for residential purposes. Warehouses are more likely to be considered. It cannot be determined whether the village was removed when the castle was built or was already abandoned; it was probably built together with the three other Viking castles ( Fyrkat , Nonnebakken and Trelleborg near Slagelse ), i.e. around 980 under the rule of Svend Tveskæg . The construction time should have been about two years. The system was used for a period of 5 to 20 years.

Find description

The castle complex has an inner diameter of 240 meters and - in relation to the outer edge of the trench - an outer diameter of 288 meters. Between the wall and the ditch there is a flat area of ​​8 meters. The trench was about 1.30 meters deep, the wall about 4 meters high. It was made of earth and peat, stiffened and clad with oak wood. There was a wooden parapet on top of the wall. The current wall is lower, it was built in 1990 and is only intended to mark the original shape. As with all Viking castles, the four main routes went from the center in the four directions. They led through a tunnel out of the round. In the quarters formed by the axes were the buildings with many small cross paths.

Three squares of four each, i.e. a total of 12 long houses, were in each quarter. They were all built in a north-south or east-west direction. With the 48 long houses in it, one could assume an occupancy of around 5,000 men. The shape of the complex is also found on rock drawings.

Only the stumps of the wooden pillars are preserved. The inclination of the stumps, their placement and dimension, as well as the shape of the Cammin Shrine, a house-shaped reliquary, and house-shaped tombstones in England give an idea for the reconstruction of the houses. They had a curved roof ridge and curved long sides. They were 32 meters long and 8.5 meters wide with a smaller width at the ends. About 66 large oak trees were needed to build a house. In total, around 5,000 large oak trees were used for the houses and the rampart.

The excavation uncovered many old finds, including imported luxury goods. Rock crystal pearls and parts of glass jugs were found in the largest house . A clamped gold bracelet was found in a post hole. A copy can be seen in the exhibition at Aggersborg Kirke .

and display information about the image
Panorama of the Aggersborg ramparts

interpretation

The facility was located on the Limfjord , which was open on both sides to the North and Baltic Sea until around 1100. It was also on one of the military routes through Jutland. So it was strategically located at a traffic junction: east-west through the Limfjord, north-south over the Ochsenweg . It remains unclear, however, whether the Aggersborg is a center of power to control trade or a “barracks” and training camp in connection with Svend Tvæskegg's raids to England.

Aelnoth, a cleric in Odense, wrote in the early 12th century of a riot in 1086 against Canute the Saint , in which Aggersborg was sacked. At that time the castle could still have been in use. This written mention was probably already of a younger royal court.

Aggersborggård

Manor from the east.

Immediately on the southern section of the ring wall is Aggersborggård , one of the oldest mansions in Denmark, which was first recorded in 1086. From 1086 to 1579 it was owned by the crown. Today's main building was built by Christen Madsen Speitzer in 1756/58, the stables were renewed after a fire in 1894. From 1852 to 1989 the farm was owned by the Nørgaard family farmers; Ane Katrine Nørgaard's great-grandson Hans Kirk made a name for himself as a writer. Today Aggersborggård has around 370 hectares of agricultural land .

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b See Holger Arbman :  Aggersborg. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1973, ISBN 3-11-004489-7 , pp. 95-96. (on-line)
  2. ^ Aggersborg Tourist Information Hanherred , accessed on January 21, 2015.
  3. ↑ See Else Roesdahl :  Fyrkat. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 10, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-015102-2 , pp. 295-301.
  4. ^ Morten Thing: Hans Kirks mange ansiger. En biografi . Gyldendal, Copenhagen 1997, p. 11 f.

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