Roskilde Fjord

• 1. Introduction

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  Roskilde Fjord stretches north of Roskilde, Denmark, a long arm of water reaching inland from the larger Isefjord. It is a place where several cities have grown along the shore, where a world-famous music festival draws crowds each summer, and where, roughly a thousand years ago, the people of Roskilde made a drastic decision to protect themselves. They sank their own ships. What they were trying to stop, and what those sunken ships have revealed, is a story that runs from the Viking age to the present day.

• 2. Cities on the Shore

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  Frederiksvaerk, Frederikssund, Jaegerspris, Jyllinge, and Roskilde all hold coastline along the fjord. Roskilde itself, which includes the district of Himmelev, is home to the Roskilde Festival, one of the most widely recognised music events in the world. The view from Roskilde looks out across the water toward the wider fjord, a vantage that has defined the city's relationship with this waterway for centuries.

• 3. Ships Sunk at Skuldelev

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  Around 1000 AD, the people of Roskilde chose to deliberately sink a number of their ships at a place called Skuldelev, a point within the fjord positioned to block passage. Their goal was to stop Vikings from sailing in and raiding their settlement. The plan was to use the hulks of sunken vessels as a barrier, turning the fjord itself into a defence. Five ships were eventually discovered at the Skuldelev site, but a later expansion of the museum that now houses these finds uncovered nine more, bringing the total to fourteen wrecks. That collection of vessels, voluntarily sacrificed by their owners, now stands as one of the most significant assemblages of Viking-era ships anywhere in Scandinavia.