Trelleborg is a collective name for six Viking Age circular forts, located in Denmark and the southern part of modern Sweden. Five of them have been dated to the reign of the Harold Bluetooth of Denmark. The fort in Borgeby has been dated to the vicinity of 1000 AD, so it is possible that it too, was built by the same king.This type of fortification is also named after the first discovered example; Trelleborg near Slagelse, excavated 1936-1941.All trelleborgs have a strictly circular shape. This structure may also be encircled by an advanced rampart but this part of the structure is not necessarily circular.The ring castles and the contemporary bridge over Ravning Enge/Vejle Å – together with minor bridges erected on Zealand and Lolland – differ clearly from others from the Viking Age. Unlike other ring castles from the period the ring castles which follow the Trelleborg model are constructed after a strictly geometrical plan and measured with the Roman foot. The pointed bottoms of the moats is another element borrowed from the Ancient Romans.All five fortresses had similar designs, "perfectly circular with gates opening to the four corners of the earth, and a courtyard divided into four areas which held large houses set in a square pattern."In spite of searches no real parallels have been found in the rest of Europe. On the coasts of the Netherlands and Belgium there are ring castles with certain points of resemblance and on the island Walcheren there are the remnants of a castle with gateways in the four points of the compass, combined with streets. Similar forts can be found in England.These generally date though from around the time of the Roman conquest of Celtic Britain and had been lying in ruins for hundreds of years prior to the building of the Viking ring forts.Datings by Dendrochronology have found the wood used for the construction of Trelleborg to have been felled in the autumn of 980 and thus being used for building presumedly in the spring of 981. The rather short construction time and the complete lack of any signs of maintenance indicate an only short use of the buildings, maybe five years but hardly more than twenty. The others have been dated to roughly the same time. Fyrkat may be a little older, Aggersborg somewhat younger. Not enough has been found at the other sites for a precise dating but the construction and layout of the Trelleborg at Slagelse, Fyrkat, Aggersborg, Nonnebakken under Odense and the fort under modern Trelleborg in Sweden is so similar that it is believed most probable that they were conceived by a single mind.Around 974 the Danish Viking king Harald Bluetooth lost control of the Danevirke and parts of Southern Jutland to the Germans. The entire complex of fortifications, bridges and roads which were built around 980 are presumed by some to be Harald's work, and part of a larger defensive system.Another theory is that the ring castles were boot camps for the troops used by Sweyn Forkbeard in his attack on England. Sweyn and his men sacked London in 1013.

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The Faroe Islands are an island group and archipelago under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark, situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Norway and Iceland, at about 320 kilometres north-north-west of mainland Scotland. The total area is approximately 1,400 km2 with a 2010 population of almost 50,000 people.The Faroe Islands have been a self-governing country within the Danish Realm since 1948. Over the years, the Faroese have taken control of most domestic matters. Areas that remain the responsibility of Denmark include military defence, police, justice, currency and foreign affairs. The Faroe Islands also have representatives in the Nordic Council as members of the Danish delegation.The islands were associated with and taxed by Norway, then the Union of Kalmar, and then Denmark-Norway until 1814, when Norway was united with Sweden. Scandinavia was in political turmoil following the Sixth Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars, when the Treaty of Kiel granted Denmark control over the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland in 1814. The Danish trade monopoly ended in 1856.

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Møns Klint, is a striking landmark and tourist attraction along the eastern coast of the Danish island of Møn in the Baltic Sea. The bright chalk cliffs stretch some 6 km from the park of Liselund in the north to the lighthouse in the south. Some of the cliffs fall a sheer 120 m to the sea below. The area around Møns Klint consists of woodlands, pastures, ponds and steep hills, including Aborrebjerg which, with a height of 143 m, is one of the highest points in Denmark. The cliffs and adjacent park are now protected as a nature reserve. Møns Klint is popular with tourists from across Europe with some 250,000 visitors a year.There are clearly marked paths for walkers, riders and cyclists. The path along the cliff tops provides impressive views and leads to steps down to the shore in several locations.On 29 May 2007, close to the cliff tops, the GeoCenter Møns Klint was opened by Queen Margrethe. The geological museum with interactive computer displays and a variety of attractions for children traces the geological prehistory of Denmark and the formation of the chalk cliffs.The museum was designed by PLH Architects, the winners of an international design competition.The chalk forming the cliffs consists of the remains of shells from millions of microscopic creatures which lived on the seabed over 70 million years ago. As a result of huge pressure from glaciers moving west, the terrain was compacted and pushed upwards, forming a number of hills and folds. When the ice melted at the end of the last ice age about 11,000 years ago, the cliffs emerged. They form part of the same deposits as the cliffs of Rügen, Germany, on the other side of the Baltic. Today, it is possible to find fossils of various types of shellfish as the sea continues to erode the chalk. Erosion also caused one of the highest points on the cliffs, the "Sommerspiret", to fall into the sea in 1998, and in January 2007, there was an even larger landslide around the Store Taler, in the northern part of the cliffs, creating a 300-m long peninsula of chalk and fallen trees stretching out into the sea below.

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Frederiksborg Palace or Frederiksborg Castle is a palace in Hillerød, Denmark. It was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV and is now a museum of national history. The current edifice replaced a previous castle erected by Frederick II and is the largest Renaissance palace in Scandinavia. The palace is located on three small islands in the middle of Palace Lake and is adjoined by a large formal garden in the Baroque style.The oldest parts of the castle date back to the 1560 structure built by Frederick II. Although he remains its namesake, most of the current palace was instead constructed by Christian IV between 1602 and 1620. He employed the Flemish architects Hans and Lorenz van Steenwinckel and the castle follows the Dutch style employed by Christian IV for his new buildings in Copenhagen.The church has also been used as the knight's chapel for the Order of the Elephant and the Order of the Dannebrog since 1693; housed the Danish royal family's art collection, notably works on the life of Jesus by Danish painter Carl Heinrich Bloch; and was the site of the 1720 Treaty of Frederiksborg.In the 1850s, the palace was again used as a residence by King Frederick VII. While he was in residence on the evening of December 16, 1859, a fire destroyed a large part of the main palace's interior. Reconstruction was funded by public subscription, with large contributions from the king and state, as well as the prominent philanthropist J. C. Jacobsen of the Carlsberg Brewery. Jacobsen also funded the museum of national history that now occupies Frederiksborg.The Palace Church or Chapel of Orders serves as a local church today and is a part of the museum on the premises. The coats-of-arms of recipients of the Order of the Elephant and of the Dannebrog are displayed on the walls of the church.

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