Where to Stay in Kerteminde, Southern Denmark

Fishing built Kerteminde. The boats still tie up along the inlet, and the painter Johannes Larsen worked here, his house kept as the Johannes Larsen Museet above the water on the north-east coast of Funen. Down by the fjord the marine centre Fjord&Bælt shows the seals and porpoises of the surrounding sound, while a short way inland the Viking ship of Vikingemuseet Ladby lies in the mound where it was buried by the water.

The sea shaped it all. Sankt Laurentii Kirke marks the old centre, and Kerteminde serves as a harbour and museum town for Kerteminde Municipality in this corner of Southern Denmark.

Sankt Laurentii Kirke stands over the old centre of Kerteminde, the medieval church at the heart of the fishing town. Above the inlet the Johannes Larsen Museet keeps the home and work of the painter, while the old dyer's house of Farvergården holds the town museum of Østfyns Museer in the lanes nearby. The water draws the rest.

Fjord&Bælt shows the seals and porpoises of the sound by the fjord, the Viking ship of Vikingemuseet Ladby lies in its burial mound a short way inland, and the country churches of Drigstrup Kirke and Revninge Kirke rise among the fields of Kerteminde Municipality.

Kerteminde grew where the inlet opens to the sound on the north-east coast of Funen. Fishing and the small trade of the harbour carried the town through the centuries, the boats working out to the sound and back to the quay below the houses, and Sankt Laurentii Kirke rose over the medieval streets as the mark of the settlement by the water. The sea ran deep in its life.

Long before, the people of the land had buried a chieftain's vessel in the mound now kept as Vikingemuseet Ladby, a sign of how far back the boats and the water reached in this corner of the island. The fishing town drew artists in later years. The painter Johannes Larsen settled above the inlet, and his house became the Johannes Larsen Museet, a draw that joined the old dyer's house of Farvergården among the museums gathered under Østfyns Museer.

Trade and the catch held steady. Kerteminde kept its place as the harbour and market town for the surrounding parishes, whose churches of Drigstrup Kirke and Revninge Kirke served the fields, and it became the seat of its municipality in this part of Southern Denmark.

Kerteminde lies on the north-east coast of the island of Funen, in central Denmark, where an inlet opens from the town to the wider sound. The old streets gather along the water around Sankt Laurentii Kirke, the fishing harbour at the foot of the centre. Water frames the town on two sides.

Kerteminde Municipality reaches inland and along the shore, the fjord by Fjord&Bælt to one side and the country parishes around Drigstrup Kirke and Revninge Kirke spread among the fields, in this corner of Southern Denmark.

Kerteminde has the mild, damp maritime climate of the north-east Funen coast. Winters keep cool and grey, the sound and the open inlet holding hard frost and lasting snow off the low ground around the harbour through much of the season. Summers turn warm and breezy.

The water of the fjord by Fjord&Bælt steadies the heat and feeds the wind under the long northern daylight, while cloud and rain off the surrounding sound reach this corner of central Denmark in every month of the year.

Kerteminde lies off the main rail lines, reached by road across the north-east of Funen. Buses and the through roads carry travellers in from the larger towns of the island, and the streets run down to the harbour by Sankt Laurentii Kirke and up to the Johannes Larsen Museet above the inlet. Most come by car.

The roads of Kerteminde Municipality link the harbour town to the wider network of Funen and the bridge crossings, while the airports of the island handle the longer journeys of visitors reaching this part of Southern Denmark from abroad.