pop (2000e) 46 700; area 588 km²/227 sq mi. Danish island in the Baltic Sea, 40 km/25 mi S of Sweden, 168 km/104 mi SE of Copenhagen; length 37 km/23 mi; rises to 162 m/531 ft; taken by Sweden, 1645; returned to Denmark, 1660; administrative capital and chief port, Rønne; fishing, fish-processing, farming, pottery, tourism.
| Basic Facts | |
|
Municipality seat |
Rønne |
| Area | 588 km² |
| Inhabitants | 43,245 (2006) |
| Website | www.bornholm.dk |
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea.
The island is located to the east of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland.
The small islands Ertholmene are located 18 km to the north-east of Bornholm.
Strategically located in the Baltic, Bornholm has been a bone of contention usually ruled by Denmark, but also by Lübeck and Sweden. The castle ruin Hammershus on the northwestern tip of the island gives testimony to its strategic importance, as the island is home to the largest fortress in northern Europe.
The island is also notable for its dialect.
Municipality
Bornholm Regional Municipality is the local authority (Danish, kommune) covering the entire island. It comprises the five former municipalities on the island (Allinge-Gudhjem, Hasle, Nexø, Rønne and Aakirkeby) and the former Bornholm County.
Bornholm Regional Municipality will not be merged with other municipalities on January 1, 2007 as the result of nationwide Kommunalreformen ("The Municipal Reform" of 2007).
The island was originally part of Scania (Skåneland).
Bornholm, as a part of Denmark, was captured by Germany relatively early in the Second World War, and served as a lookout post and listening station during the war.
On 22 August 1943 a rocket (numbered V83, probably launched from a Heinkel He 111) crashed on Bornholm as part of a test - the warhead was a dummy made of concrete.
Bornholm was heavily bombarded by Soviet forces in May 1945.
More recently NATO radar installations have been placed on the island.
A Russian (Soviet) declaration after World War II stated that the placement of "foreign soldiers" (i.e., NATO forces) on Bornholm would be considered a declaration of war against Russia, and that Denmark should keep troops on it at all times to protect it from foreign aggression. This caused diplomatic problems at least twice: once when an American helicopter landed outside the city of Svaneke due to engine problems in a NATO exercise over the Baltic Sea, and once (sometime between 1999 and 2003) when the Danish government suggested shutting down Almegårdens Kaserne, the local military facility, since "the island could quickly be protected by troops from surrounding areas and has no strategic importance after the fall of the Iron Curtain".
Historical architecture
The island is home to 15 medieval churches, four of which are round and display unique artwork and architecture.
The island also hosts some notable examples of 19th and early 20th century architecture, amongst others, about 300 wooden houses in Rønne and Nexø, donated by Sweden after the World War II, when the island was repairing war damages.
Famous people
The Danish painter Oluf Høst was born in Svaneke in 1884.
The Danish writer and painter Gustaf Munch-Petersen moved to Bornholm in 1935 and married Lise Hjort while living on the island.
At the age of 8 Martin Andersen Nexø moved to the island, and adopted the last name Nexø from the city Nexø at the east coast of the island.
References in popular culture
A considerable part of the Second World War spy thriller Hornet Flight by Ken Follet takes place on Bornholm, depicting the island under German occupation.
In 2000, the book The Templars' Secret Island by theorists Henry Lincoln (famous for co-writing Holy Blood, Holy Grail) and Erling Haagensen described several observations about the island.
Some of these involved claims of apparent geometry, such as that Haagensen in Bornholms Mysterium from 1992 had discovered that geometry related to the Island's four round churches could be
marked on a map to define a hexagonal geometry. Lincoln and Haagensen's Secret Island book claims that the Bornholm geometry is manmade, was created around the time of the emergence of the
Knights Templar during the early Crusades in 1188-1250 AD, required measurement technology that was not known to have been used in Europe before the 17th century (but with accuracy known to
Hellenistic Greece 300 BC), and that the churches' true original function may have been as medieval astronomical observatories.
The famous Danish footballer Brian Laudrup has a summerhouse on the island.
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