Ringkøbing

Ringkøbing stands by a fjord on the west coast of Jutland, sheltered from the North Sea by the dunes of Holmsland Klit. Its name means the market town near Rindum, a village with a church already in the eleventh century. Archaeological finds suggest that Ringkøbing itself was founded in the thirteenth century. Christopher of Bavaria confirmed its market privileges in 1443. In the seventeenth century wind and tides shifted the fjord's outlet southward until it ceased to be navigable, cutting the town off from the sea.