Fredericia () is a town located in Fredericia Municipality in the southeastern part of the

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

peninsula in Denmark. The city is part of the Triangle Region, which includes the neighbouring cities of Kolding and

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality ('' kommune'') and the R ...

. It was founded in 1650 by Frederick III, after whom it was named. The city itself has a population of 40,886 (1 January 2022)BY3: Population 1. January by urban areas, area and population density
The Mobile Statbank from

Statistics Denmark Statistics Denmark ( da, Danmarks Statistik) is a Danish governmental organization under the Ministry of the Interior and Housing and which reports to the Minister of Economic and Internal Affairs. The organization is responsible for creating st ...

and the Fredericia Municipality has a population of 50,324 (2014).

History

After the devastation caused by the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an es ...

in a largely unfortified Jutland, King Christian IV realized the necessity of building a strong fortress in Jutland, and decided that this project could be combined with his plans for building a large town in Jutland. A fortified encampment was built on a point of land called Lyngs Odde, near the current location of Fredericia, with a rampart stretching to either side of the point, thus protecting the encampment from attacks. However, the fortifications were not perfect, and when Swedish Field Marshal

Lennart Torstenson Lennart Torstensson, Count of Ortala, Baron of Virestad (17 August 16037 April 1651), was a Swedish Field Marshal and military engineer. Early career He was born at Forstena manor in Västergötland. His parents were Märta Nilsdotter Posse a ...

invaded Jutland, he was able to break through the ramparts. It was Frederick III who was finally able to complete the plans for the fortification, also adding a flank fortification on nearby Bers Odde as suggested by Danish Marshal of the Realm

Anders Bille Anders Bille (19 March 1600 – 10 November 1657) was the Danish Rigsmarsk, the officer leading the entire armed forces of Denmark, from 1642.

. On 15 December 1650, the King signed the document giving the town its first privileges, and work on the new fortifications could begin. In 1651, the town was named Frederiksodde (Frederick's Point) after the king, and on 22 April 1664, it was given the new Latinized name of Fredericia. Every 6 July, the town of Fredericia holds a festival to commemorate the 1849

Battle of Fredericia The Battle of Fredericia was fought between soldiers of Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark on 6 July 1849 at Fredericia in Denmark. The battle was a part of the First Schleswig War, which was a conflict between Schleswig-Holstein, supported by sever ...

, fought during the

First War of Schleswig The First Schleswig War (german: Schleswig-Holsteinischer Krieg) was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question, contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig, ...

, in which Danish troops won a victory over the

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

rebels who were laying siege to the town. Fredericia's landmark, ''Landsoldaten'', was unveiled on 6 July 1858.

Present

The municipality today is part of the East Jutland metropolitan area with 1.2M inhabitants, and is the site of Fredericia municipality's municipal council. The town is a major

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

, home to the

Royal Danish Army The Royal Danish Army ( da, Hæren, fo, Herurin, kl, Sakkutuut) is the land-based branch of the Danish Defence, together with the Danish Home Guard. For the last decade, the Royal Danish Army has undergone a massive transformation of structures ...

's Signals Regiment ('' Telegrafregimentet''), which is located at Rye's Barracks (''Ryes Kaserne'') and Bülow's Barracks (''Bülows Kaserne'').

Transportation

The town is one of Denmark's largest traffic hubs.

Rail

Fredericia railway station Fredericia station ( da, Fredericia Banegård) is a railway station serving the city of Fredericia in Jutland, Denmark. Fredericia station is an important railway junction where the Copenhagen-Fredericia Line, the Fredericia-Aarhus Line, and th ...

is the principal railway station of the town. It is an important railway junction where the Copenhagen-Fredericia Line, the Fredericia-Aarhus Line, and the Flensburg-Fredericia Line all meet.Fredericia Banegård
o
Danske Jernbaner
/ref> The station was opened in 1935 together with the opening of the Little Belt Bridge across the Little Belt. The train services are operated by the railway company

DSB DSB may refer to: Science, technology and devices * DsbA, a bacterial member of the Dsb (disulfide bond) family of enzymes * Double strand break, a break in both DNA strands, part of DNA repair * in telecommunications, double-sideband transmission ...

. It offers direct

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

services to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Odense,

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...

, Struer,

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

, Sønderborg,

Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...

and

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Air

The nearest

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

with scheduled national and international flights is Billund Airport 45 km west of Fredericia.

Notable people

* Jens Mikkelsen Ehrenborg (1621 in Fredericia – 1690) an officer, civil servant, and Swedish nobleman *

Jørgen Balthazar Winterfeldt Jørgen Balthazar Winterfeldt (1 October 1732 - 22 July 1821) was a Danish naval officer and philanthropist. He was admiral from 1804 and was awarded the Order of the Elephant in 1811. He established Winterfeldts Stiftelse at Klerkegade 25 in Copen ...

(1732 in Fredericia - 1821) a naval officer and philanthropist * Hartvig Philip Rée (1778 in Fredericia – 1859) a Jewish-Danish merchant and author *

Poul Pagh Poul Pagh (14 February 1796 – 30 November 1870) was a Danish merchant and shipowner who played an important role in developing industry and commerce in the city of Aalborg. In 1827, he started a thriving trading business based in N.C. Rasch's man ...

(1796 in Fredericia – 1870) a Danish merchant and shipowner *

Frederick Brockhausen Frederick Carl Brockhausen, Jr. (May 20, 1858 – June 16, 1929) was a cigar maker and trade union activist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who spent four terms as a Socialist Party of America, Socialist member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. Backg ...

(1858 in Fredericia – 1929) a cigar maker, trade unionist and US politician * Vilhelm Buhl (1881 in Fredericia – 1954) the 11th Prime Minister of Denmark * Erik Holtved (1899 in Fredericia – 1981) an archaeologist,

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

and artist *

Jørgen Vig Knudstorp Jørgen Vig Knudstorp (born 21 November 1968 in Fredericia) is a Danish businessman, who is the executive chairman and former CEO of the Lego Group. He succeeded Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. Early years Knudstorp was born in 1968, grew up in Frederi ...

(born 1968 in Fredericia), businessman, former CEO of

Lego Group Lego A/S (trade name: The Lego Group) is a Danish toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks aro ...

The Arts

Carit Etlar Carit Etlar, the better-known pen name of Carl Brosbøll (August 7, 1816 – May 9, 1900), was a Danish author, known mostly for his 1853 book ''Gjøngehøvdingen'' about the eponymous Svend Poulsen Gønge. Biography Born Johan Carl Christian Br ...

(1816 in Fredericia – 1900), Danish author of ''Gjøngehøvdingen'' in 1853 * Magdalene Thoresen (1819 in Fredericia – 1903) a Norwegian poet, novelist and playwright * Henrik Pontoppidan (1857 in Fredericia – 1943), a Danish realist writer, shared the 1917

Nobel Prize for Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

Svend Rathsack Svend Rathsack (8 September 1885 in Fredericia – 14 December 1941 in Frederiksberg) was a Danish sculptor. Early life Rathsack studied painting at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Danish Academy (1903-1907) under Otto Bache, Frants Henni ...

(1885 in Fredericia – 1941) a Danish sculptor *

Svend Melsing Svend Melsing (27 December 1888 – 8 June 1946) was a Denmark, Danish stage and film actor, theatre director and playwright whose career spanned nearly forty years. Early life Born Svend Nielsen in Fredericia, Denmark, he was the son of Pede ...

(1888 in Fredericia – 1946), actor, theatre director and playwright *

Ellen Krause Ellen Margrethe Krause Rørup (29 December 1905 — 11 September 1990) was a Danish artist who, after marrying Viggo Rørup in 1937, became a member of the artists' colony in northwestern Zealand known as the Odsherred Painters. Biography Born in ...

(1905 in Fredericia — 1990) a Danish artist, joined the

Odsherred Painters Odsherred Painters ( da, Odsherredsmalerne) is a term applied to Danish artists from various periods with connections to Odsherred in the northwest of Zealand, Denmark. Some were born there while others settled in the area or painted there. While ...

Else Holmelund Minarik Else Holmelund Minarik (née Holmelund; September 13, 1920 – July 12, 2012) was an American author of more than 40 children's books. She was most commonly associated with her '' Little Bear'' series of children's books, which were adapted for t ...

(1920 in Fredericia – 2012) an American author of children's books *

Tage Skou-Hansen Tage Skou-Hansen (12 February 1925 – 11 November 2015) was a Danish writer, editor and scholar. Overview Born in the town of Fredericia, Tage Skou-Hansen graduated from Marselisborg Gymnasium in Aarhus and became a student of history of liter ...

(1925 in Fredericia – 2015) a Danish writer, editor and scholar *

Cecil Bødker Cecil Bødker (27 March 1927 – 19 April 2020) was a Danish writer and poet, most known for young adult fiction books about the character "Silas". For her "lasting contribution to children's literature" she received the international Hans Chr ...

(born 1927 in Fredericia - 2020) a writer of young adult fiction and a poet * Erik Moseholm (1930 in Fredericia – 2012) a jazz composer, bandleader of the

DR Big Band The Danish Radio Big Band (aka: DR Big Band), often referred to as the Radioens Big Band is a radio ensemble and big band founded in Copenhagen in 1964 at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). Band history Originally called the New Radio ...

Harvey Martin Harvey Banks Martin (November 16, 1950 – December 24, 2001) was an American professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys from 1973 until 1983. He starred at South Oak Cliff ...

(1942 - 2014), sculptor *

Kristian Blak Kristian Blak (born 31 March 1947), originally from Fredericia, Denmark, lives in the Faroe Islands where he is a composer, musician, and record executive. He is the founder of the Nordic musical ensemble Yggdrasil (named after the World tree ...

(born 1947 in Fredericia) a composer and musician in the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

Martin Zandvliet Martin Pieter Zandvliet (born 7 January 1971 in Fredericia) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Career Zandvliet originally began as an editor, before writing and directing the documentary ''Angels of Brooklyn'' in 2002. His first ...

(born 1971 in Fredericia) a Danish film director and screenwriter *

Christian Holten Bonke Christian Holten Bonke (born 13 August 1973) is a Danish documentary filmmaker and screenwriter. He has directed music videos, commercials and documentary series for television, most recently ''Uffe’s Alternative.'' (2 episodes, DR 2015). He ...

(born 1973 in Fredericia) a documentary filmmaker and screenwriter IMDb Database
retrieved 7 May 2020 *

Søren Andersen Søren Andersen (born 31 January 1970) is a Danish former professional footballer. He played as a striker, and most prominently represented English club Bristol City, Spanish club Rayo Vallecano, as well as several Danish clubs. He won the 199 ...

(born 1973 in Fredericia), Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter, Producer.

Sport

Jesper Bank Jesper Bank (born 6 April 1957 in Fredericia) is a Danish sailor and Olympic champion. He received a bronze medal in the '' Soling Class'' at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. He won a gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelon ...

(born 1957 in Fredericia) a sailor, twice Olympic gold medallist in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

* Peter Kjær (born 1965 in Fredericia) a Danish former footballer with 459 club caps * Thomas Sørensen (born 1976 in Fredericia), football goalkeeper, 497 club caps and 101 for

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

Patrick Hougaard Patrick Hald Hougaard (born 23 May 1989)www.ddnp.co.uk
Retrieved on 2008-07-04. is a

(born 1989 in Fredericia) a Danish motorcycle speedway rider *

Annette Jensen Annette Jensen (born 24 September 1991) is a Danish handball player for Team Esbjerg and the Danish national team. She has also played for Fredericia HK, Horsens HK, Slagelse FH, Team Tvis Holstebro and Vipers Kristiansand in Norway. She made ...

(born 1991 in Fredericia) a Danish handball player *

Sara Thygesen Sara Thygesen (born 20 January 1991) is a Danish badminton player, specializing in doubles. She started playing badminton at Gårslev in 2002. She got an award for the best female athlete of the year 2007 in her hometown Fredericia. In 2014, she ...

(born 1991 in Fredericia) a badminton player, specializing in doubles play. *

Katrine Veje Katrine Vejsgaard Veje (born 19 June 1991) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a left back for Everton in the English FA Women's Super League and the Danish national team. She has previously played for Arsenal in the FA WSL, LdB ...

(born 1991 in Fredericia) a footballer, over 200 club caps and 119 for Denmark women

Twin towns

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Municipal seats of the Region of Southern Denmark Municipal seats of Denmark Cities and towns in the Region of Southern Denmark Forts in Denmark Port cities and towns in Denmark Port cities and towns of the North Sea Planned cities Fredericia Municipality 1650 establishments in Europe Populated places established in 1650