Faaborg

Faaborg is a small port on the south Funen coast with a well-kept centre of cobbled lanes, low houses and a surviving town gate, and its landmark is the belfry of a demolished church, a brick tower that leans noticeably and whose carillon plays through the day. The town's significance is artistic: the Faaborg Museum, opened in 1915 in a building by Carl Petersen that is itself a landmark of Danish neoclassical design, holds the collection of the canned-goods manufacturer Mads Rasmussen and is the principal home of the Funen painters, the group who worked around Faaborg in the decades either side of 1900 painting rural life and light. Kaare Klint designed the museum's furniture, and the building is considered a turning point in Danish design.

History

Faaborg is first mentioned as Foburgh, "fox castle", in a deed of 25 June 1229 kept in the French National Archives, in which Valdemar II gave the town and south Funen as a morning gift to his daughter-in-law Eleanor of Portugal. It seems to have been a market town by the 13th century, protected by water on three sides, a moat and a town wall, and a monastery founded around 1477 came to own most of the town; after the Reformation it served for a time as a hospital before it was pulled down, and its chapel became the parish church. Faaborg prospered as a port in the 18th century, exporting corn to Norway and trading with Schleswig and Holstein, in the 19th century Britain became its main partner, and by the 1890s its ships sailed as far as the Mediterranean. Its population grew from 1,000 to 4,000 by the end of the century, with newcomers from Schleswig and Holstein, many of them Jewish, who made it the largest Jewish community on Funen with its own synagogue; steamship links to Copenhagen and railway connections in the 1880s followed, and in the 20th century tourism became the main source of growth (Wikipedia, Faaborg).

Highlights

• The leaning belfry - a brick tower with a carillon, all that remains of its church.
• Faaborg Museum - the Funen painters in a landmark 1915 building.
• Kaare Klint's museum furniture - designed for these rooms specifically.
• Cobbled lanes and the town gate - the preserved centre around the harbour.

When to go

May to September for the town and the archipelago ferries. Half a day. The museum closes on Mondays outside high season. Summer brings sailing traffic to the harbour.

Good to know

The museum is small and highly specific to Danish art of one period. Ferry timetables to the islands are seasonal and change. Much of the town closes early. Parking near the centre is limited.

Nearby

Svanninge Bakker is inland; the south Funen archipelago is reached from the harbour.

Key facts