Bornholm: Smokehouse Tradition, Museums and Landscapes

If you’re looking for accommodation on Bornholm, you can begin planning your trip around your interests. Landscapes, views, smokehouse traditions and historical insights offer different starting points for your trip. The specific differences can help you set priorities in advance: Almindingen is home to a rift valley, Hammershus offers castle views, and museums explore nature or the Middle Ages.

Landscapes and views

Ekkodalen, Bornholm’s largest rift valley, is located in Almindingen. This gives you a clearly defined natural feature to include in your plans. From the cliffs above Opal Lake, the view stretches across the surrounding area, the Baltic Sea and the ruins of Hammershus Castle. Hammershus is located at the northern tip of Bornholm; the visitor centre offers panoramic views of Hammershus. The viewpoints offer different perspectives: from above Opal Lake, you can see the Baltic Sea, the surrounding area and the castle ruins, while the panoramic view from the visitor centre focuses on Hammershus itself. This lets you choose between a landscape view and a view of the castle complex when planning your visits.

Smokehouse tradition on Bornholm

Bornholm’s first smokehouse opened in Gudhjem in 1866, and herring has been smoked there ever since. The date connects the town with the beginnings of Bornholm’s smokehouse history and a tradition that continues today. In Hasle, Hasle Smokehouse is the last smokehouse on Bornholm where fish is still smoked traditionally over alder wood in smokehouses with open chimneys. This gives you two specific points of reference for local food culture when planning your trip. Gudhjem represents the historical beginnings and the smoking of herring; in Hasle, the traditional method, open chimneys and alder wood are the defining details.

Museums with different areas of focus

Bornholms Middelaldercenter is a 15-hectare open-air museum. It presents Bornholm in the 14th century in an engaging, interactive way. NaturBornholm focuses on something different: its exhibits include dinosaurs, live crocodiles, an aquarium and a bison exhibition. If you’re choosing between the two, the Middelaldercenter focuses on a specific period in Bornholm’s history, while NaturBornholm brings together different aspects of nature and wildlife.

Visitor conditions and getting there

There is a specific condition for visiting Østerlars Round Church: when no service is taking place, visitors can enter the church for a fee and climb up to the roof beams. Take this condition into account when planning your visit. You can travel to Bornholm by ferry, plane, bus or train. The ferry crossing from Ystad in Sweden to Bornholm takes one hour and 20 minutes. Check the operator’s current timetable for your travel dates so you can factor the crossing into your travel plans.

Discover more destinations: Gudhjem, Klemensker, Listed, Rø, Tejn, Østerlars, Østermarie, Arsballe, Kås.

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