Middelfart

Middelfart sits at the narrowest point of the Little Belt, where the current runs hard between Funen and Jutland, and that current is why harbour porpoises gather here in the largest concentration in Danish waters, feeding in the turbulence. The town hunted them until the 1950s, a trade covered by the local museum, and now runs boat trips to watch them instead, with sightings common in summer. Two bridges cross the belt here, the 1935 Old Little Belt Bridge and the 1970 motorway crossing, and the older one carries a footpath. The waterfront has been rebuilt with a curving housing scheme and a promenade, and the belt itself is a proposed marine national park.

History

The name, first recorded as Mæthælfar in Valdemar's Census Book of 1231, means "middle way" and first referred to the Snævringen, the narrowest part of the Little Belt, to which the town owes its existence. It received its first privileges at the end of the 13th century, when fishing mattered alongside the ferry to Snoghøj in Jutland, and from the Middle Ages it specialised in catching harbour porpoises; cattle export became important in the 16th century. After the Swedish Wars of the 17th century it lost its foreign export privileges and faced competition from Fredericia across the belt, and porpoise income fell in the 18th century, but its own harbour of 1836 and the trade in farm produce brought recovery, followed by small industries, above all an iron foundry, and the railway to Nyborg in 1865. After the first Little Belt Bridge was completed in 1935 Middelfart became a hub for traffic between Jutland and Funen, its population growing from 2,345 in 1880 to 11,056 in 1950, and a motorway bridge followed in 1970 (Wikipedia, Middelfart).

Highlights

• Harbour porpoises in the narrows - the densest concentration in Danish waters.
• The Old Little Belt Bridge - the 1935 crossing, walkable.
• The porpoise-hunting museum - the trade the town lived on until the 1950s.
• The curving waterfront quarter - the new housing scheme along the belt.

When to go

May to September for porpoise trips, which run in the warmer months and depend on weather. Half a day. Sightings are best in calm conditions. The bridge walk works year round.

Practical notes

Porpoise sightings are not guaranteed and the animals are small and undemonstrative compared with dolphins; expect brief glimpses of fins. Boat trips cancel in wind. The town itself is ordinary. The new waterfront is residential rather than public.

Nearby

The Little Belt bridges cross to Jutland; Odense lies east across Funen.

Key facts