Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(
www.vikingeborgen-trelleborg.dk
; Trelleborg Allé 4;
10am-5pm Tue-Sun Jun-Aug, 10am-4pm Tue-
Sat Apr, May, Sep & Oct)
History buffs will revel in visiting one of the most important Viking Age sites, a ring fort-
ress dating back to AD 980. Before heading across the meadows to the fortress and recon-
structed Viking-era buildings, visit the small but informative
museum
, which explains
how the fort was built, occupied and abandoned. Displays contain weapons belonging to
soldiers at the fort (spearheads, axes, arrowheads and shield bosses), as well as everyday
items (pottery, bronze jewellery, locks and keys, combs and loom weights). There are also
two skeletons from the graveyard.
The Fortress
Trelleborg was constructed as a circular fortress, built to a precise mathematical plan
and home to a garrison of around 500 soldiers, plus craftsmen and some women and chil-
dren. Huge earthen banks, 17m wide and 6m high, formed a protective wall around the
fort. Inside, two streets divided the circle into quarters, each containing four longhouses
set around a courtyard. Two nearby streams gave the inhabitants boat access inland and out
to the sea.
Trelleborg's impressive scale and strategic position, and the similarly designed forts at
Fyrkat, Nonnebakken and Aggersborg, indicate a powerful 10th-century force at work,
with immense manpower to command. Dendrochronology has shown that the trees for the
palisade (which added an extra defensive layer to the earthen banks) were cut down in AD
980, during the reign of Harald Bluetooth. One theory is that the forts were built by Harald
after an uprising led by his son, Sweyn Forkbeard.
Hints of big trouble are littered across Trelleborg. The fort was occupied for a very short
space of time, before being abandoned around 990. There are signs of a large fire, and a
Viking graveyard lying within the fort's outer defences contains two mass graves, both
containing the bodies of men in their 20s and 30s.
Despite the passing of a millennium since its construction, the circular earthen mound is
perfectly intact. Naturally, the wooden structures that once stood inside it have long since
decayed, but the post holes and gable ends of the buildings have been filled with cement to
show the outlines of the house foundations. You can walk up onto the grassy circular ram-
part and readily grasp the strikingly precise geometric design of the fortress. Grazing
sheep imbue the scene with a timeless aura.
