Kalundborg

Kalundborg stands at the head of a sheltered fjord on northwestern Zealand. Around 1167 Esbern Snare built a castle beside a fishing settlement and the natural harbour of Hærvig, a gathering place for the royal fleet. The town's five-towered Church of Our Lady, built in the thirteenth century, rises above the old upper town.

The castle passed to the crown in 1262. After a Norwegian raider plundered the district in 1285, Erik Menved fortified it again. In 1341 Valdemar IV besieged the castle, then held by Ingeborg, widow of Knud Porse. Supported by the sons of Count Gerhard of Holstein, she forced him to raise the siege; a subsequent settlement gave the castle to the king while she retained Halland for life. In 1360 Valdemar held an assembly of the realm at Kalundborg to settle a dispute with the Jutish nobles.