Slesvig

Schleswig takes its name from the Schlei, the long inlet of the Baltic at whose western end it stands. Across the water lay Hedeby, a major Viking trading settlement. After repeated destruction in the eleventh century, its population moved to the opposite shore, where Schleswig developed as a town. Its cathedral, begun in 1138, served a bishopric established as early as 947.

In 1544 Gottorf Castle became the residence of the dukes of Gottorf, vassals of the Danish crown who ruled substantial lands in Schleswig and Holstein. Their seat made the town a centre of ducal government. The Great Northern War altered that position: in 1721 the dukes lost Gottorf and much of their territory, and the castle became part of the Danish crown lands.