Land of Legends Lejre

Lejre was founded in 1964 as a research centre for experimental archaeology, testing how prehistoric people actually built, farmed, cooked and made things by doing it, and it grew into a large open-air site where visitors walk between reconstructed settlements from different periods: a Stone Age camp, an Iron Age village of longhouses with fires burning and livestock, a Viking market, and an eighteenth-century farmstead. Staff in period dress work at forges, looms, pottery kilns and cooking fires, not as performers but doing the tasks, and visitors can join in with axe throwing, dugout paddling, grinding grain and firing pottery. Old Danish breeds of cattle, pigs and sheep are kept, and the land is farmed with period crops.

History

The ethnologist Hans-Ole Hansen founded the centre in 1964 as the Centre for Historical-Archaeological Research, to create new knowledge of the past through experiments, and on 1 March 2009 it took the name Sagnlandet Lejre, Land of Legends. It lies near Gammel Lejre, a major political centre of Iron Age Scandinavia, and its reconstructions include an Iron Age village and sacrificial bog of 200 BC to 200 AD, a Viking market place of around 900, a Stone Age campsite of 5000 BC, an 18th-century farmstead and grave monuments, with workshops for pottery, weaving and smithing. Archaeologists from around the world come to carry out experiments here, among them the flintknapper Errett Callahan, and each summer families spend a week living in the Iron Age village, the farm cottages and the Stone Age camp using the techniques of the past; around 55,000 tourists and schoolchildren visit each year (Wikipedia, Sagnlandet Lejre).

The main sights

• An Iron Age village - longhouses with fires burning and animals kept.
• Experimental craft work - forging, weaving and pottery done by hand.
• Old Danish livestock breeds - cattle, pigs and sheep of historic types.
• Hands-on activities - dugout paddling, grinding and firing.

When to go

May to September, when the settlements are staffed; the site closes or runs limited days outside that. A full day. It is aimed at families and is busiest in Danish school holidays. Wear boots and clothes you do not mind smoking.

Good to know

It is seasonal and largely closed in winter. Everything is outdoors, so weather makes or breaks the day. It is aimed at children and families and adults alone may find it thin. Ticket prices are high. Activities can have queues in peak weeks.

Nearby

Roskilde and its cathedral are a short drive east; Skjoldungernes Land is around it.

Key facts