Sønderborg - In English

Water, landscape and history in the Sønderborg area

Denmark is a country shaped by its waters: its sounds, belts, archipelagos, fjords, bays, inlets and coves. The waters at Sønderborg offer almost everything a yachtsperson could ask for.

Sønderborg municipality comprises the island of Als and the two peninsulas Broagerland and Kær. It has one of the country’s longest coastlines. To the east is the South Funen Archipelago, and to the north-east the landscape of Funen rises above fjords and bays. To the west and south is the long coastline of Germany. Last but not least is the heart of the area: the gentle, narrow strait of Alssund that meanders between Als and the mainland. To the south, the narrow and deep strait passes the palace and the town, and in the summer months, boats sail in single lines under the magnificent bridges. To the north, the strait becomes wider towards Als Fjord and Augustenborg Fjord and almost disappears in a labyrinth of bays and coves along the western coast of Als.



These waters are bordered by areas ripe with unique history. In 1920 a referendum in North and Central Schleswig resulted in the restoration of North Schleswig to Denmark, and the border between Denmark and Germany has remained undisturbed in the middle of Flensburg Fjord ever since. However, numerous historical monuments along the coast testify to previous battles and periods of unrest and war. Where the fjord and the strait meet, the very old royal and ducal Sønderborg Castle, now the home of the regional history museum, is located. On the shores of Augustenborg Fjord stands the splendid eighteenth-century palace of the dukes of Augustenborg that was once the setting of a magnificent court life, until the dukes were evicted from the area after the Danish-German civil war in 1848-50. Tucked away among forests and lakes, the other ducal palaces in the area can be glimpsed: Nordborg and Gråsten. The Danish royal family stay at Gråsten Palace every summer.

Seven hundred years of history converge in the harbour area in Sønderborg: the medieval castle and town, the enormous German naval station and surrounding single-family houses from the early twentieth century and the more recent modern bridges, the hospital and the Alsion University from 2007. Over the next few years, the waterfront will be transformed on the basis of a masterplan designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry.

Along the fjord and the strait, woods are intersected by fields bordered by the quickset hedges that are typical of the region. There are also old fishing villages, small manor houses, old tileworks, summerhouses, caravan and camping sites and upmarket restaurants. Above it all rises Dybbøl Hill with Dybbøl Mill, where the Danish army lost a crucial battle to the new powerful state of Prussia on 18 April 1864, after which Denmark ceased to be a multinational unified nation and became a small nation state.

In this way, peaceful luxuriant landscapes and dramatic transboundary cultural heritage meet around waters with sun-sparkling nooks and crannies as deep as dramatic rain squalls.