Rødby

Template: Infobox city in Denmark / Maintenance / height missing

Rodby is a town on the Danish island of Lolland and part of Lolland municipality in Region Sjælland. Until 2006 was Rodby capital of Rodby Commune, the Storstrøms office belonged.

To place the five kilometers south to Ferry Rødbyhavn heard ( " port of Rodby " ), which is connected by iron and motorway Zealand. The port, which is served by ferries from the German Puttgarden on Fehmarn, is one of the two ferry ports in the course operated by Scandlines Vogelfluglinie. By decision of February 2007 to replace the ferry service in the medium term a fixed Fehmarn crossing. For this purpose, a treaty between Germany and Denmark was signed in September 2008.

Name

1231 was the place nor Ruthby. The name derives from the ancient Danish phrase from ruth for clearing, ie belongs to the group of grubbing name from the medieval conquest. The place-names ending in -by, the "City " means in today's Danish indicated a yard or a group of farms.

History

The Village at later diked Rødbyfjord was first mentioned in 1200 and developed in the Middle Ages as an important ferry crossing. In the 15th and 16th centuries, live cattle were exported to the south of here on a large scale and the Rødbyer farmers received extensive trading privileges. In the middle of the 17th century in beef exports declined in importance and the fairway in Rødbyfjord silted up, so that had to be resorted to other ports in the south of Lolland.

1682 Rodby received city rights, but lost in return the right to trade with foreign countries. In order to gain the privilege again in 1690 at the request Rødbyer citizens of the city status was converted back into a patch. 1699 was the place to call again Købstad ( " provincial town " ), but retained the beneficial trade privileges of a patch.

In the flood of 1872, the southeastern Lolland has been hit hard. The disaster accelerated earlier plans, the Rødbyfjord dry out and create a new port. In 1873 started the construction of a 2.8 to 4.8 m high dike along the south coast of Lolland and thereby created drainage channels and pumping stations. 1930, up to two meters was finally dammed below sea level, the fjord and 1966 finally dried up, so that the area for agriculture could be used.

After three years of construction, a new harbor was completed in 1912, which lies on the Baltic Sea in the south of the city. The opening of the Rødbyhavns and its connection to the railway network led to some growth. In its vicinity a district that attracted some industrial enterprises emerged. A strong industrial city was, however, never Rodby, instead certain 1960 administration and service the urban labor force. Your largest boom Rodby with the opening of the ferry to Puttgarden in the year 1963, when the population grew during this time within five years from 4000 to 5200 in 1965. In 1965, the airport Lolland-Falster was opened, which was later expanded several times.

Since the 1970s, the population in the region decreases. Also opened in 1988, the Holiday Centre Lalandia, which had recorded 720,000 overnight stays in 2006, could not halt the population decline. In addition, Rodby lost after the municipal reform in 2007, his role as the administrative center of the municipality after the city went up in the new large municipality of Lolland. All major administrative facilities are now located in the town of Maribo, 12 km away.

Structures

In the city there are memory and merchant's houses that bear witness to the history as a port city. The Merchant's Willers Gård in Vestergade 1 is from 1729 and is now home to the Tourist Information. A column in the Nørregade indicates the water level, which was reached at the flood of 1872. While the storm surge only offered the church Rodby kirke, which dates from about the year 1225, protection from the water. In the yard Ravgården in Østergade 5 a amber museum is housed.