Historical timeline

Gamleborg is Bornholm’s oldest stone building from the Viking Age (750–1050 CE) and the island’s oldest royal fortress.

The earliest finds at the site date back to around the year 900.

Around the year 1100, the fortress was reinforced with a massive granite wall. 

Hammershus is built around the year 1250 by the Archbishop of Lund to secure the Church’s power on Bornholm.

After the failed attack, the Swedish fleet sailed north and put troops ashore at Malkværnskanse.

The Hammershus judicial district was the last function housed at the castle, but around the year 1700, a new courthouse was built in Sandvig.

In 1743, Hammershus was finally abandoned, and that same year, its materials were used to build the main guardhouse in Rønne. Subsequently, the castle fell into ruin and became a freely accessible quarry for locals.

Mer än 10 000 personer deltog i festligheterna.

Prince Christian Frederik later becomes King Christian VIII.

Kongemindet is built to commemorate the visit of King Frederick VII and Countess Danner to Bornholm in 1851.

The factory has been located at Krystalgade 5 in Rønne since 1862.

Bornholms Museum is a cultural history museum for Bornholm and Christiansø.

To restore the panoramic view, Kongemindet is raised with a steel construction, bringing Rytterknægten and its tower to a height of 172 metres above sea level.

The railway line is decommissioned on September 28, 1968.

The railway line is decommissioned on August 18, 1952.

The railway line is decommissioned on September 15, 1953.

The railway line is decommissioned on August 18, 1952.

During Kristallnacht, the Nazis destroyed nearly 7,500 Jewish businesses and burned around 200 synagogues. The name comes from the shattered glass from windows that covered the streets.

The invasion began on September 1, 1939, at 04:40, and ended on October 6, 1939, when Germany and the Soviet Union had occupied all of Poland.

The construction was abandoned and the entire project was discontinued in 1941.

The goal of D-Day was to establish a secure beachhead in northern France, allowing Allied forces to move into German-occupied Western Europe. The invasion became a decisive turning point in World War II.

The letter D simply stands for day. The term is used in planning military operations when the exact date should not be revealed. Thus, D-1 refers to the day before, and D+1 to the day after, the actual D-Day.

After months of intense negotiations and international pressure, the Danish government formally requested in February 1946 that the Soviet Union withdraw its troops. In response to the Danish note and Western pressure, the Soviet Union issued an order for evacuation.

On April 5, 1946, the last Soviet soldiers sailed away from the island. The Danish navy monitored the departure and escorted the Soviet ships out of Danish waters.

The people of Bornholm, who had lived under Soviet occupation since May 1945, celebrated their final liberation with great relief and joy.

The Danish Defence Intelligence Service’s radar and listening station at Dueodde was an important contribution to Danish defence and NATO during the Cold War. The radar station had a range deep into Eastern Europe.

This is the listening tower that can be seen from a long distance today and that visitors to the museum can climb.

Bornholm Art Museum was founded in 1893 in Rønne as part of Bornholm Museum.

Museet är ritat av arkitektbyrån Fogh och Følner ApS.

Granite extraction in Vang began in the late 19th century and continued for more than 100 years.

In the referendum held on 29 May 2001, 74% voted yes to merging Bornholm County with the island’s five municipalities (Allinge-Gudhjem, Hasle, Nexø, Rønne and Åkirkeby). Voter turnout was 81%, and the result led to the establishment of Bornholm Regional Municipality, which came into effect on 1 January 2003.

On 1 January 2003, Bornholm Regional Municipality became a reality. The merger was based on the advisory referendum held in 2001, in which a clear majority voted in favour of uniting Bornholm County and the island’s five municipalities. The result was a single municipality for the entire island, with a more unified administration and a simplified municipal structure.

In 2011, Bornholm’s Regional Municipality, on the initiative of Mayor Winni Grosbøll, invited the public to the first Folkemødet.

The listening station is later converted into a museum in 2015.

In 2021, Allinge Harbour was voted Denmark’s most beautiful harbour area in a nationwide competition organised by Historiske Huse. More than 3,000 Danes took part in the vote, and Allinge won ahead of 14 other nominated harbour environments from across the country. The award particularly highlighted the harbour’s authentic character, its granite-carved construction and the historical traces that still shape the area – qualities that together create a unique and atmospheric harbour setting.

The Bornholm and Christiansø Fisheries Association dissolves itself after 141 years due to a significant decline in fisheries around Bornholm. According to chairman Thomas Thomsen, the closure is caused by factors such as zero quotas on cod, rising sea temperatures, oxygen depletion in the Baltic Sea, and a declining cod population. At the same time, the number of active vessels has dropped sharply over recent decades, leaving the association without a basis to continue.