Ølsted
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Ølsted is a small village in Denmark located at , north-west of Copenhagen. As of January 1st, 2004, the town has approximately 2775 inhabitants, but growing at a fast rate. It belongs to the municipality Frederiksværk.
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[edit] History
The village is very old, and was most likely founded before year 400 A.D., according to excavations done at Stokrosevej in April 2006. The oldest building that is still standing is currently the church, which is dated to be from approximately year 1100.
The name Ølsted means "Beerplace" and is believed to be the original meaning of the word. The village is located at the border of the wetlands just south of Arresø lake, where there has probably been a lot of traffic historically.
King Frederik IV of Denmark restructured his army in 1715-1718 in order to obtain a large but not too expensive army, because of the Great Nordic War which took place in 1700-1721. He designated 12 regions to provide cavalry, and one of them was Frederiksborg. Being a pietist, he also ordered each of these regions to build 20 schools each in very high quality for the education of the children in the regions, providing the first public schools in Denmark. This decision was made March 28th, 1721, and all schools were established in 1727. One of these schools was built in Ølsted, and today this building is being used as an office for the local church. More information here.
[edit] Indoor skating
The town has a good multi-purpose hall, where skaters, BMX-riders and inliners from all over the region come to join and practice. The place is called "Olliestedet", a name that comes from the skateboard trick ollie. The local BMX-riders protested against the name because the name relates to only skateboarding, even though the place is open for anyone.
Every year, the locals hold a competition called "Olliestedet Open", which is a popular skateboard-event.
[edit] Features
Because of the age of Ølsted and the remote distance to bigger cities, it features a lot of things, amongst others:
- A church from approximately 1100
- A supermarket named SuperBrugsen from 1907
- Ølsted Kro, a pink hotel built in the style of the 19th century
- A train station with connections to Hillerød
- A gravel pit (now closed but publicly accessible)
- A school
- Soccer fields at 3 different locations
- A multi-purpose hall for skating, BMX'ing etc.
- A multi-purpose hall for badminton, gymnastics, markets, celebrations and shows.
- A library
- Many sport clubs, companies
- Two kindergartens
- View over Arresø lake and Roskilde Fjord
- A number of farms inside the core town
At the beach there are a large number of leisure houses which are also considered to belong to the city. About half of the population lives in the beach area, and the other half in the core town.
