Kalundborg Sights & History
In the 13th C. Kalundborg carried on extensive maritime trade. The oldest town privileges date from 1485. After Valdemar Atterdag had taken Kalundborg about 1340 he razed the old castle to the ground and replaced it with a larger one in the east of the town. It was here that the "Danehof" (later the parliament) met between the 14th and 17th centuries, and the king often stayed in Kalundborg. By the end of the Middle Ages the town's halcyon days were over. From 1658 to 1660 Swedish troops occupied the town, and the castle was taken by them and blown up.
Since 1684 ships have been sailing twice a week between Kalundborg and Århus; after 1874 a rail link was formed with Copenhagen and trade was established with Norway and England. At the end of the 19th C. various industries were set up in Kalundborg.
The area of Kalundborg was first settled in 1170 as a natural harbor along the bay. The city began to get more urbanized during the nineteenth century and became a major industrial center in the mid-twentieth century.
Kalundborg Municipality has approximately 20,000 inhabitants, and its network is the most published example of Industrial Symbiosis. The history of Kalundborg Industrial Symbiosis activities began in 1961 when a project was developed and implemented to use surface water from Lake Tisso for a new oil refinery, to save the limited supplies of ground water. The City of Kalundborg took the responsibility for building the pipeline while the refinery financed it. Starting from this initial collaboration, a number of other collaborative projects were subsequently introduced and the number of partners gradually increased.
By the end of the 1980s, the partners realised that they had effectively "self-organised" into what is probably the best-known example of Industrial Symbiosis. The material exchanges in the Kalundborg region include: conservation of natural and financial resources; reduction in production, material, energy, insurance and treatment costs and liabilities; improved operating efficiency; quality control; improved health of the local population and public image; and realisation of potential income through the sale of by-products and waste materials.
Kalundborg is noted for its five-spired church and the Lerchenborg home, considered the best example of Rococo architecture in Denmark. The home is found on the outskirts of Kalundborg.
West of Kalundborg, on the spit of land called Rosnæs, can be seen a restored mill, the Ulstrup Mølle. It is a Dutch "gallery mill", which means that the cap of the windmill can, if necessary, be turned manually from the gallery which surrounds it so that the sails face the wind. The mill was in use until the 1950s and is the emblem of the village of Ulstrup.
