Bornholm

Bornholm's position in the middle of the Baltic made it a prize for centuries. It was usually ruled by Denmark, but at times by Sweden and by Lübeck: in 1525 Frederick I pawned the island to the Hanseatic city for 50 years in return for its support in winning the Danish throne. The great fortress of Hammershus on the northern tip, Scandinavia's largest medieval fortification, and round churches such as Nylars, built with a defensive role in mind, show how often it had to defend itself.

In 1658 Denmark ceded Bornholm to Sweden under the Treaty of Roskilde, with the rest of the Scanian lands. A revolt broke out the same year, ending with Villum Clausen's shooting of the Swedish commander Johan Printzensköld on 8 December, and the islanders handed their island back to the Danish king. Bornholm and the tiny Ertholmene archipelago are today the last Danish territory left in the Scanian lands east of the Øresund. Industry came in the 19th century with clinker works at Hasle from 1843, and granite, quarried for centuries, is still cut near Rønne.

The Second World War ended late here. Soviet aircraft bombed Rønne and Nexø on 7–8 May 1945, leaving about 3,000 people in Rønne homeless and damaging most of the houses in Nexø; Soviet troops landed on 9 May, the German garrison of about 12,000 surrendered, and the Red Army stayed until 5 April 1946. Sweden helped to rebuild the two towns. In the Cold War the island was a radar base watching the Eastern Bloc, and in 1953 a Polish pilot defected by landing a MiG-15 here. In September 2022 both Nord Stream gas pipelines were damaged by explosions close to the island.

The island's separateness shows in its speech: many inhabitants speak bornholmsk, a dialect of Danish with three grammatical genders, closely related to the Scanian dialect of southern Sweden, and the 1658 revolt is remembered as the moment the islanders chose Denmark.

Crafts are central to Bornholm's identity. Ceramics made from the island's own clay, glass-blowing in Svaneke and small glass workshops across the island, textiles and the tall-cased Bornholm clocks made on the island from 1745 to 1900 give it a reputation far beyond its size. The Bornholm Art Museum above the Sanctuary Rocks shows painters with connections to the island.

Each June Folkemødet, a four-day political festival begun in 2011 and modelled on Sweden's Almedalen Week, brings party leaders, organisations and the public to the small harbour town of Allinge to debate across party lines. Sailing and water sports suit the island's coast, and football is played at stadiums in Rønne and Nexø.

The island had about 39,000 inhabitants in January 2025. Rønne, the main town and seat of the regional municipality, has about 13,600 people; Nexø, the second town, about 3,600; and the rest live in small towns such as Hasle, Allinge-Sandvig, Gudhjem and Svaneke, in villages and on farms. Since 2003 the whole island has formed a single municipality.

Dairy farming, glass and pottery workshops and tourism, above all in summer, are the main sources of work. Nexø remains the largest fishing port and has a distillery, and granite is still quarried just east of Rønne. Visitors come mainly from Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Poland, and the ferries, catamarans and flights are the island's lifelines.

Life follows the seasons. Summer fills the harbours, beaches and holiday homes, while spring and autumn are quieter and cheaper. The sea still matters strategically: in 2017 Danish military intelligence decided to build a listening tower almost 90 metres high near Østermarie to monitor radio traffic across the Baltic.

Smoked herring is the island's signature. The smokehouses — røgerier — of seaside towns and villages such as Gudhjem, Snogebæk, Arnager, Allinge and Hasle smoke herring and sell it alongside other fish and seafood, and the larger ones serve seafood buffets. The classic way to eat it is Sol over Gudhjem, "sun over Gudhjem": an open sandwich of smoked herring on rugbrød, dark rye bread, with chives and a raw egg yolk, the sun, on top. Since 2009 the name has also been used for a cooking contest between top chefs.

The mild, sunny climate lets a local variety of fig, Bornholms Diamant, grow on the island. Beer has been brewed in Svaneke since 1750, with a short break, and its brewery opened in 2000 as one of Denmark's first microbreweries; Nexø has a spirits distillery.

Beyond the smokehouses, eating out is concentrated in Rønne's harbour and old streets and in the summer cafés of Gudhjem, Svaneke and Allinge. Danish staples — smørrebrød, frikadeller, pan-fried meatballs, and the bakeries' wienerbrød, the flaky pastry known abroad as a "Danish" — are found everywhere.