Holstebro (DK)

About year 9000 BC stone age hunters wandered about on these latitudes. Actual settlements along streams in West Jutland are not known until 7500 – 6000 BC. Here were good life conditions, forests with game and Storeå with salmon. Sedentary farmers we meet about 4000 BC. New tools gradually changed life conditions, so they could clear the forest and cultivate the more clay soil. Bronze age grave mounds north of town still tell about these ancient settlements.

Where people live and move, roads are developed. The long row of grave mounds of which only a fraction are maintained in a fairly good condition, also show the layout of the ancient roads.

Where roads crossed or had to pass a stream, a town society might occur. The old cattleman roads from Thy in the North to Ribe in the south passed Storeå somewhere where passing was possible.

This crossing was the beginning of Holstebro. The bridge in the name must have been here before 1274, the year where Holstebro for the first time entered the light of history (Thyge, the Bishop of Ribe, dates a letter at Holstebro on February 6th. 1274).

Of previous events in this area, we can mention that Prince Buris in 1163 founded the Cistercian monastery ”Tuta Vallis” in Tvis (about 4 km east of Holstebro). Today the monastery is demolished.

Holstebro had a central location in Hardsyssel (the area between the North Sea and the ridge of Jutland, between Limfjorden and Skjernå – i.e. the main part of present Ringkøbing Amt), and here thingstead was held (memorial stone erected about 100 m north of the old thingstead between Sysselting and Sysseltoft), where judicial decisions were made from time immemorial to approx. 1500. It is unknown when Holstebro became a market town, as the towns oldest privileges burnt in 1552.

Already in the 13th century, the diocese of Ribe had possessions in town. The bishop’s official, maintaining the interests of the diocese in Hardsyssel, lived from 1418 in ”Bispegården”, where you find library now. At the Reformation ”Bispegården” was reverted to the Crown, which in 1630 left it to the town.

Holstebro’s first church was a small Roman granite church with no tower. In about 1425, a late Gothic style, church building of red bricks replaced it, and was later on provided with a tower and transept. This church stood until 1906 whereafter the present church was constructed at the site. The church’s altarpiece (a splendid Dutch woodcarver piece from the 15th century) originates from the old church.

The town’s main business was always trade, even though every farm practised agriculture as well. Very early, Holstebro was the business- and trade town of Hardsyssel. The businessmen of town kept a lucrative trade with the Netherlands and North Germany. The town was known for its skin, leather and wool. The big horse- and cattlemarkets provided the businessmen the opportunity of buying up and exporting. The export market carries on these old traditions.

After a number of fires, the town regained its strength. From the mid-18th century it was a gradual move forward. In 1854-55 Holstebro’s harbour in Struer was built. The railroad connection to Struer came in 1866, in 1875 to Ringkøbing, and in 1904 to Herning.

From ancient time, Holstebro has been a traffic junction, and today the system of roads is even more developed. Many roads lead to Holstebro.

Of the many pieces of art characterising townscape, we must mention ”Woman on a Chart” erected in front of the old town hall. This slight girl named ”Maren on the Chart” by the citizens, stands as a symbol of the culture politics that since 1965 has made Holstebro known in the entire country and internationally.