Skagen

Skagen lies on the narrow peninsula at the northern tip of Jutland. It began as a fishing settlement and became known for its herring. The name appears in 1284, and around 1340 Vesterby on the eastern shore emerged as its principal village. St Lawrence's Church was built nearby at the end of the fourteenth century; in 1413 Eric of Pomerania made Skagen a market town.

Ships found the surrounding waters hazardous. In 1561 Skagen received its first lighthouse, but wrecks and storms continued to afflict the coast. By the 1590s flooding and drifting sand had destroyed houses and covered farms. Herring declined in the seventeenth century, and Swedish troops plundered the town in 1644. Sand eventually made St Lawrence's difficult to reach, and the church was closed and partly demolished in 1795. Its tower remained above the dunes.