Vestbirk is a village in

Horsens Municipality Horsens Municipality () is a municipality ( Danish: '' kommune'') in Region Midtjylland on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality includes the island of Endelave, and covers an area of 515.2 km2. It ha ...

, Denmark. The area is characterized by the

Gudenå The Gudenå or Gudenåen (), is Denmark's longest river and runs through the central parts of the Jutlandic peninsula. An anglicized version of the name often seen is 'The River Guden'. The Gudenåen has its spring in Tinnet Krat, Vejle Municip ...

river and its lakes which are popular destinations for local fishermen and tourists. The village of Vestbirk was originally formed as a farming community, and its population has been in decline.

Geography

Vestbirk is located 8 km southwest of one of Denmark's highest points,

Yding Skovhøj Yding Skovhøj in Horsens municipality, Jutland is one of Denmark's highest points. Features Its height is above sea level when the height of one of the Bronze Age burial mounds built on the top of the hill is included. If these man-made struct ...

which has an elevation of 172.54 meters. The landscape bears clear signs of the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

with large meadows formed by glacial

meltwater Meltwater (or melt water) is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glaciers, glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelf, ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found during early spring (season), spring when snow packs a ...

. At the bottom of the glacier valleys lies the Gudenå river. Vestbirk Soe

Three lakes have been artificially created in Vestbirk as a result of damming up the Gudenå river: Bredvad Lake, Naldal Lake and Vestbirk Lake. They were formed between 1922 and 1924 when Vestbirk Vandkraftværk, a hydroelectric power plant, was built. The facilities and surrounding lakes have been public property since 1979. Today, the power plant operates as a working museum and generates 2 GWh annually.

History

In 1682, Vestbirk and its surrounding area was mostly grassland used as pasture by a total of 13 farms. The total area cultivated was 451.9

barrels of land A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

which was valued at 52.92 barrels of barley grain. The Horsens-Bryrup-Silkeborg Railway (HBS) opened in 1899 with a

railway stop A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such a ...

near Vestbirk. The railway was eventually purchased by the state and converted from a

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

private railway A private railway is a railroad run by a private business entity (usually a corporation but not need be), as opposed to a railroad run by a public sector. Japan In Japan, , commonly simply ''private railway'', refers to a public transit railway o ...

into a public

. The stop originally had an enclosure for pigs, but reopened as a fully fledged station in 1913. After cars made the track obsolete, the station was closed on 30 March 1968. A nature trail between

Horsens Horsens () is a city on the east coast of the Jutland region of Denmark. It is the seat of the Horsens municipality. The city's population is 64,418 (1 January 2025) and the municipality's population is 97,921 (), making it the List of cities and ...

and

Silkeborg Silkeborg () is a Denmark, Danish town with a population of 52,571 (1 January 2025).hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, ...

along the Gudenå river. The factory burnt down in 1920 and Vestbirk Vandkraftværk built on the former site. The new hydroelectric power plant formed the Vestbirk lakes.

Community

The population of Vestbirk has been in decline. In 1911, 344 people lived in Vestbirk; by 1916 the population had dropped to 248. In 1965, Vestbirk had a population of 212. Vestbirk has several schools in the Grundtvigian tradition: Vestbirk Højskole (1884–2006), Vestbirk Friskole (est. 1892), and Vestbirk Music and Sports Efterskole (est. 1907).

Citations

{{WikidataCoord Cities and towns in the Central Denmark Region Horsens Municipality