Espergærde

Template:Geobox Espergærde is situated in Northern Zealand near Øresund and is statically considered part of the lager urban area Espergærde-Snekkersten-Elsinore, some 5 ti 8 km south of the former town centre and in reality separated from the urban area of Elsinore-Snekkersten by a 100 m wide unbuilt belt, Egebæksvang forest and area under natural protection around Flynderupgård (previously a village, later a farm, today a museum). The urban area of Espergærde also covers the two former villages Tibberup and Mørdrup and part of the former fishery village of Skotterup, with 11.524 inhabitants (2008) . Espergærde is well limited to the north by Egebæksvang forest and Flynderupgård, to the west by Rolighedsmoserne (swamp area) and Helsingørmotorvejen (motorway or higway), to the south by Krogerup mansion fields and Babyloneskoven (Babylone forest). Espergærde is part of Region Hovedstaden (the captal area).

Espergærde has its own postal number, 3060, and is split in two clerical areas: Egebæksvang clerical area (church nearby the old fishermans village) and Mørdrup clerical area (church next to the urban centre).

Road net and bus connections

From Espergærde 2 main roads goes to the internal part of the land and to the northwest. In the north Mørdrupvej (vej = road), passes the villages Gurre and Nygård and ends in Ålsgårde and in the south Hornbækvej passes the villages Kvistgård and Tikøb and leads on to Hornbæk. The town has connections by these two roads to the towns Ålsgårde and Hornbæk, and a third bus connection by Strandvejen to Elsinore.

Rail road connections

Espergærde has rail road connection to Copenhagen and Elsinore by Kystbanen (Coast line), and to Hillerød city and Elsinore by Nordbanen (Nothern line) from the rail road station in Mørdrup.

Trade and service

The urban centre is Espergærde centret (centre), Denmarks oldest planned centre, with shops, institutions, medical care, dentist, public library and lutheranian church. At Øresund coast Espergærde has an harbour, Espergærde Havn , for yarts. It was planned to but never built into a marina.

Espergærde is also the place for one of Denmarks biggest high schools, Espergærde Gymnasium & HF, which since the middle of the 1970'ties replaced Helsingør Latinskole (Elsinore Latin school). On the high school there is every year an international conference , attracting sebveral hundred pupils to the town.

Recreational areas

Both north and south of Espergærde so called green wedges. It means, tha the green area goes all the way out to the cost - as forest or cultivated area, until the Strandvejen (Beach road).

To the north is situated Egebæksvang (forest) and Flynderupgård farm fields towards Snekkersten, to the south farm fields towards Krogerup and the town Humlebæk. To the west the town is limited by the Rolighedsmoserne (a swamp area) and part of Kelleris Hegn (a forest) situated between Nordbanen (rail road) and Helsingørmotorvejen )Elsinore motorway).

History

Thename refers according to Nudansk Ordbog (a dictionairy) "fenced area in aspen forest" ~ Asperød-giærde, and that the village originally was a new middleaged village of 2-3 farms on top of a coastal slope.

Renaissance

Around the year 1500 on the beach area below the coastal slope a small fishermens village of 6-8 houses developed in two lines on both sides of a north-south going coastal road, Strandvejen, connecting Espergærde with others similar fishermen villages to the north: Skotterup, Snekkersten) and south (Humlebæk, Sletten) developed around the same time. From Espergærde a road went to the inland to the village Mørdrup situated abouth 2 km from the coast. From the beach near Espergærde during 16th centuri wood was sent from the forest Egebæksvang situated to the northwest. Connected to the village were 2-3 smaller farms on top of a beach slope.

According to the land tax registration 1682 4 fishermen had reserved parts of the coastal area for fishing eal in Øresound, for which they had to pay 2 Rdl. in land taxes per year; 2 areas were "øde" (out of use). 6 houses without land had to pay 1 Rdl. in land taxes.

Espergærde together with the villages Mørdrup and Tibberup belonged to the mansion Krogerup situated to the south. The farmers in these villages had to make hoveri (farm work) on the mansion, and the road from Mørdrup to the south towards Tibberup (and from here further on to Krogerup) still has the name "Hovvej", referring to these conditions. Krogerup mansion was almost the only private mansion in Northeastern Zealand, while all other areas belonged to the Crown.

Summer holiday area and railway town

During the years from 1841 to 1847 on the 28th May there was a celebration recalling the starting of Provinsialstænderne (Provincial represents council) like other celebrations in cities. The reason for this was that the radical representative, ship clarating N.P.Kinck won the election in Helsingør on the 8th january 1841 for the [[Provincial Represents Council for the Danish Islands over the conservative candidate. Egebæksvang was elected as the place to recall the celebration recalling this victory partly because of request from rural residentials. The first celebration brought together 5-6000 people from the area and Elsinore by Hvidestensbakken (White Stone Hill) in the forest, and also celebrations during the next years took place here. During Treårskrigen (Three Year War) 1848-1850 in the Dutchies Slesvig-Holstein no celebrations took place and from 1852 the celebrations started up again but now in honour of the June 5th-constitution; in honour of the constitution a stone monument was raised in the forest. The celebrations took place every year until 1855 and then came to a stop during some years. In stead the forest was used for parties for different purposes like building af harbour for the fishermen in Snekkersten and Espergærde, but also for other purposes. All these celebrations became well known and draw summer holiday guests to the area including people from Copenhagen.

A Steam boat line was expanded to the north and from 1877 the steam boat made stops in Copenhagen and the villages along the coast: Skovshoved and Bellevue Beach, Tårbæk, Skodsborg, Vedbæk, Rungsted, Humlebæk, Snekkersten, Helsingør and Helsingborg. The same year a post line opened from Elsinore til Snekkersten, Skotterup and Egebæksro (on the fringe of the forest Egebæksvang just south of the small Egebækken stream running into The Øresound. The post coat line stopped after a short time but the summer holiday visitors continued to grow.

Until the 1870-is the visitors came mainly on one-day trips to the forest and the beach, but according to the law of business enterprize (næringsloven) of 1857 it was specifically allowed the house owners to give their houses for rent to foreign visitors and supply them with food, so the local people started to give their homes for rent during summer and themselves lived in a building for stocking materials, horse staples or other secondary purposes. Shortly after summer cottages started to be build on areas next to the coast, the oldest being "Mary Hill" from 1848, the next "Hostruphus" build as a national gift in 1870 for the poet Christian Hostrup. During the 1870-ies and 1880-ies the coastal area between Egebæksvang and Øresound became one of the most popular places for Copenhagen summer holiday visitors, and in 1880 a large part of the coast was already filled with summer cottages.

The increasing number of summer visitors gave way for new entreprize. First, a lange number of cottages were built thus creating jobs for building workers. In 1850 there were only 3 building workers in Espergærde area, one in each of the villages Skotterup, Mørdrup and Tibberup. In 1870 there were 8 building workers. In 1880 already 18. In the number of building workers had increased to 22.

Also, the summer visitors gave new possibilities for trade, both for the farmers and fishermen, who were allowed to sell their own products, and for shop keepers like the store in Skotterup and the stores in Elsinore.

At the end of the 19th Century the number of summer cottages grew quickly and from 1897, when Kystbanen )coastal rail road) was opened (with a station from 1903), about 1 km from Espergærde, a small town grew up, mainly of summer cottages.

Now followed all kind of shop keepers and a bath hotel built in 1896 with the name hotel "Gefion" above the coastal slope and a great view to the fishermens village and the sea. Also more and more houses and summer cottages were built between the village and the railroad station on the southern side of Egebæksvang forest. Together with these houses came new craft men and trade people, even som industrial production. However, most of the people went by train as commuters to Elsinore or Copenhagen, and at a time the Coastal Railroad was known as the "gross traders train" (grosserertoget).

The development continued until World War 2, and the fishermens village became a true town, first with many summer holiday visitors, later as a residential area for people working in Elsinore or Copenhagen. In 1911 the were 500 people in the town, in 1916 713 people in 144 houses. But this was only the beginning.

After WW2

In 1950 the inhabitants had grown to some 2600 people. In 1947 the first building plan was made in the local community with the proposal to built the entire 2x2 km2 area from the coast to the inland villages, and during the 1960-ies this development took place. From 1960 to 1970 the number of inhabitants grew from 4.000 to 10.000 people. Because of this development Espergærde became the administrative centre of the local community. I 1970 the rural community was merged with Elsinore city, and Espergærde became a centre for the planning department.

In 2009 Espergærde officially was consideresd to be connected to Elsinore even, if the two urban areas are still divided by a about 100 m unbuilt area between Espergærde-Skotterup and Snekkersten-Helsingør.

References

• Tageo.com, "VESTSJAELLAND DENMARK Geography Population" (coordinates), 2007, webpage: Tageo-index.
• Denmark Postal codes, webpage: Postnumre-DK.
• Tele.dk Denmark detailed road map, webpage: Tele-DK-Danmark.

External links

• Espergærde Centret
• Espergærde Gymnasium & HF
• Espergærde Idræts Forening