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40-620: Nors is a small town, with a population of 1,076 (1 January 2024), in Thy district , North Jutland Region in Denmark . It is located in Thisted Municipality 14 km southeast of Hanstholm and 9 km north of Thisted . Nors Church has a choir and nave from Romanesque times from the years 1000–1200, where many churches were built in Denmark. Nors is located 2 km east of Nors Lake, which

80-516: A carcass bearing marks associated with a wolf-kill was found on 18 February. On 1 March 2013, the Minister of the Environment Ida Auken , initiated on this background the formulation of a Danish action plan concerning wolves. Thy is originally the same word as Old Norse þjóð ("thioth"), meaning people. The Danish Census Book of King Valdemar II of 1231 mentions Thiuthæsysæl , i.e.

120-564: A dead wolf was found in the national park area. After thorough DNA-tests it was finally confirmed that there was a 100% match with a wolfpack in the Lausitz -region in Sachsen , Germany. The wolf was four years old and it is believed that it traversed the 850 km to Thy National Park. Wolves have been exterminated in Denmark for 200 years. In the beginning of 2013 a wolf-like creature was observed in Thy and

160-453: A few of them return to Thy after finishing their education. The Nordic Folk Centre for Renewable Energy is internationally known for its research in wave energy and small-scale windmills for developing countries. With its position in the northwestern corner of Jutland, Thy is far from the greater traffic corridors . There is, however, some international transit traffic due to the ferry lines from Hanstholm harbour to Western Norway and

200-635: A great number of burial mounds . In the Viking Age the area had vital trade links across the North Sea, being Christianised from England by Saint Theodgarus , a missionary originally from Thuringia and trained in England, unlike other parts of Denmark that were Christianised from the south. The former cathedral and monastery of Theodgarus in Vestervig is today the largest village church of Scandinavia. In 1085 Thy

240-688: A harbour in Hanstholm. However, this was delayed by numerous incidents, including the low grants in the 1930s, and even though the Germans had plans to use the harbour as part of their strategy when they occupied Denmark in the Second World War, they stopped all construction in June 1943, removed all machines and blew up the buildings on the beach. After the Second World War , a political struggle began to complete

280-1280: A native population as well. The only major hotel-like holiday complex is at Vigsø Bugt east of Hanstholm. Thy has become a major destination for windsurfing . There is some small and medium scale industry , with no single company exceeding 1,000 employees. These include wooden furniture ( NJA in Nors), prefab windows ( Ideal Combi in Hurup) and Sjørring Maskinfabrik in Sjørring (subsupplier to Volvo and Scania ). The harbour of Hanstholm with related ferries and fish processing industries employ about 2-3000 people. Most major employers are based in Thisted: Cimbria ( combine harvesters and grain dryers ), Coloplast (medical plastic products), Oticon ( hearing aids ), and HM Automatic/Thy El-Teknik (industrial electrical systems). Food industry includes Tican ( meat processing / slaughterhouse ), Dragsbæk Maltfabrik ( malt ), Dragsbæk Margarinefabrik ( margarine ), and Mejerigaarden/Polar Is (one of Denmark's largest ice cream manufacturers), all in Thisted. Thisted Bryghus

320-518: A very varied landscape. In the north it is marked by flat coastal plains which were covered by sea in Neolithic times, but fell dry because of the post-glacial rebound . These are interrupted with higher-lying plains that were islands in the Neolithic sea. In the slopes that formed the coast in these times, high-lying limestone is often visible - hence the name of the Limfjord . The eastern stretch, facing

360-513: A weekly summer service to the Faroe Islands and Iceland from Hanstholm until 2010. This service now departs from Hirtshals. The northern part of Denmark is rising because of plate tectonics , and has lifted the island of Hanstholm out of the water so that it is no longer an island, but an elevated area. You can still see two old farms: Bådsgård, which means boat farm, is located on the previous island Hanstholm; Færgegård, which means ferry farm,

400-774: Is a part of Hanstholm Wildlife Reserve in Thy National Park . Thy (district) Since the Danish municipal reform of 1 January 2007, Thy is roughly identical with Thisted Municipality which belongs to the North Denmark Region . The southernmost part of Thy, the Thyholm Peninsula , belongs to Struer Municipality in the Central Denmark Region . Before the merger, Thy consisted of four municipalities: Hanstholm , Thisted , Sydthy and Thyholm . Thy forms

440-447: Is located in Sårup towards Hansted. Today you can simply drive between Sårup and Hansted. As Hansted's population grew from a couple of hundred to several thousand people during the 20th century, some urban planning was applied. It seems to have been modelled in the same way as other growing Danish towns in the 1960s, which basically means that you can drive through the city without noticing

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480-473: Is located on the northern edge of a salt dome , and this edge consists of very hard chalk, which is the reason that ice age erosion did not remove these formations. Because the ocean streams in this area prevent the ocean from freezing, and because of Hanstholm's geographic location, it is the perfect place for an industrial harbour , open all year. In 1917, the Danish Parliament decided by law to build

520-665: The North Atlantic . To the Faroe Islands , Iceland and Norway : Small internal ferries on the Limfjord : The closest airports with scheduled flights are Aalborg Airport and Karup Airport . 56°53′00″N 8°28′00″E  /  56.88333°N 8.46667°E  / 56.88333; 8.46667 Hanstholm Hanstholm is a small town and a former island, now elevated area in Thisted municipality of Region Nordjylland , located in northern Denmark . The population of

560-562: The Port of Hirtshals approximately 140 km north of Hanstholm. With the loss of the ferry service to the Faroe Islands and Iceland, Hanstholm also lost its last ferry connection to and from the city, but there are still on-going attempts to establish new ferry routes to the city, and at the same time try to get some of the old ferry routes back to the port of Hanstholm. There are two museums in Hanstholm, one of which enables visitors to go down into

600-669: The syssel of Thy. Thy is by some scholars thought to be the origin of the Teutons ; Ptolemy placed the Teutons and the Cimbri at the northern end of Jutland on his ancient map. In the Stone Age , probably before it got its later name, Thy exported fine flint present in the limestone. A Neolithic flint quarry has been restored at Hov east of Thisted. Thy was densely populated in the Bronze Age and has

640-537: The Limfjord, has quite fertile soil, is slightly hilly and dotted with small villages and farms like the landscape in most of rural Denmark. The landscape is marked by strong western winds, most trees bending eastwards. The west coast has wide beaches and high dunes with Leymus grass and sea-buckthorn . Behind the dunes, there is heath with stretches of Calluna heather, Iceland moss , Cladonia , crowberry , bilberry , blueberry , cranberry and orchids including

680-551: The Romans. In the years 800 to 1050, Hanstholm and the area around it were islands , and nearby was the gathering point for the Vikings for their invasions of England and France . According to legend, the first Christian church in the Thy area was built in 1040 in Vestervig, where Christian priests coming from England entered Denmark. A big monastery was later built here and this was

720-454: The beach and were designed for the transport of grain, flour and logs. A lot of sand began to drift from the west coast towards the east in the 14th century. In 1555, the sand drift had damaged a large area of Vigsø parish, and the local pastor suggested the abandonment of both the parish and the church. However, people stayed in the area, and the parish remained active. The other parishes were hit hard as well, and in 1690 there were dunes on

760-576: The beginning of the end of the Viking era. The churches in Ræhr, Hansted and Vigsø were built in the 12th century in Roman style, and on Hansted church, one of the stones shows the picture of a trading vessel. This trading vessel has been used as model for the arms of the former Hanstholm municipality . From approximately 1600 to approximately 1850, people from the area of Hanstholm traded considerably with Norway , which

800-636: The distance to Norway , in order to block allied entry into the Kattegat and thus the Baltic Sea . Similar cannons were installed in Kristiansand in Norway. Thousands of bunkers were constructed in the area. After the war it was too dangerous to blow them away and the bunkers themselves were too solid to remove in other ways. Therefore, most bunkers still remain in the ground, and some can even be seen on beaches or in

840-553: The harbour (ex-MasterCat and Mads Mols) until October 2009. Previously there has also been a ferry service to the Faroe Islands and Iceland from Hanstholm with the ferry Norröna owned by the Faroese shipping company Smyril Line . But in the autumn of 2010, after almost 20 years of regular ferry service to and from the Faroe Islands and Iceland, the shipping company Smyril Line unexpectedly chose to stop all of its operations to and from Hanstholm. Instead it moved all Danish operations to

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880-419: The harbour's construction, but the other harbours in Denmark feared this. But the passing of a new law on 29 April 1960 finally led to the harbour's completion. It opened in 1967 and today is one of the largest harbours in Denmark. Fjord Line ferries sailed from Hanstholm until autumn 2008 to Western Norway ( Egersund , Haugesund and Bergen ). Fjord Line's fast ferry Fjord Cat to Kristiansand sailed from

920-504: The largest bird sanctuary in Northern Europe. Nearby is the bird cliff Bulbjerg . On 22 August 2008, Thy National Park officially opened, as the first of three realized national parks out of seven planned. On 10 July 2007, a police officer from Hanstholm found a hermit in the state forest of Hjardemål Klit, one of the more deserted areas in the north of Thy. For three years, the middle-aged man from Zealand had been living in

960-480: The parts of this new harbour town belong to Hansted parish, and because Hansted has been the harbour town for so many centuries, many people refer to this town simply as Hansted instead of Hanstholm. Besides Hanstholm and Hansted, one more name is related to this, Hanherred: To the north is Vigsø Bay (‘’Vigsø Bugt’’) a part of Skagerrak . To the west is the North Sea . The ferry MV Norröna of Smyril Line operated

1000-416: The pastor's fields, more than 12 metres high. Numerous attempts to stop the sand drift finally succeeded in the 19th century by the planting of trees and lyme grass. However, many low coastal areas between the former islands had already been covered with dunes. South of Hanstholm, a unique dune landscape of approximately 4,000 hectares has become a wildlife reservation, named Hansted Reservat. The lighthouse

1040-500: The primitive forest shelters of the district and made a living from collecting empty bottles . For the same period he had been missed by his parents, who thought he was dead, but he was now re-united with them on the initiative of the police officer. Forest workers told they were aware of the man's existence, particularly that he had left behind many eggshells at the shelters and seemingly was nourished on eggs, but since he didn't do any harm they had left him alone. On 19 November 2012,

1080-405: The public. Thy is still a mainly rural area, the traditional businesses of agriculture and fishery being more prevalent than in many other areas of Denmark. Tourism is a major business in summer, the coastal villages receiving many German tourists and smaller numbers of Norwegians, Swedes, Dutch and others. Although the coastal resorts have areas with individual holiday houses, they maintain

1120-403: The sand drift went the furthest inland in this area, as far as 18 km (11 mi). Parts of the sandy stretches have been turned into conifer woods. A line of lakes, believed to have been caused by the sand drifts blocking the outflow to the sea, mark the border between the western, sparsely populated sandy area and the eastern, fertile farmland. The wetlands Vejlerne in the northeast are

1160-422: The size of it. Most shopping is concentrated in a shopping mall (Hanstholm Centret), and there are separate pedestrian and bicycle paths covering most of the city. Several excavations have shown that the Hanstholm area was inhabited by farmers as early as 1000 B.C. In the year 120 B.C., teutons inhabited the area, but left in a large exodus, together with the Cimbri , towards the south, where they encountered

1200-454: The town is 2,085 (1 January 2024). The former island Hanstholm (short form of the original name Hansted Holm) has many placenames, including Hansted, Nørby, Gårddal, Ræhr, Hamborg, Bjerre, Febbersted, Krog, Nytorp and Vigsø. In the beginning of the second millennium , churches were built in Vigsø, Ræhr and Hansted, forming three parishes . At the end of the 20th century, Denmark's largest harbour

1240-463: The unique Dactylorhiza majalis subsp. calcifugiens . This is the result of huge sand drifts in the 15th to 19th centuries which covered much formerly fertile land. The sand drifting affected the whole west coast of Jutland, and various other parts of Denmark as well like Tisvilde on Zealand for example. Since Thy is exposed to winds from both the north and the west, even from the North Atlantic,

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1280-422: The water, where the ocean has moved the coastline (the coastline moved, but the bunkers did not). Only a few bunkers lying in the way of road constructions have later been blown up using a special method of filling them with water before the explosion. A museum in Hanstholm gives access to the central parts of this World War II fortress. After the war, many conifers were planted in order to provide shelter against

1320-530: The western part of the North Jutlandic Island and borders Hanherred to the northeast with Vendsyssel even further northeast. In the Limfjord is the island of Mors , considered a twin district of Thy, and south of the fjord is Hardsyssel in western mainland Jutland. Thy is traditionally regarded part of northern and western Jutland alike. The dialect belongs to the West Jutlandic group. Thy has

1360-515: The wind and in order to hide the German concrete constructions (ref. SkovOgNatur brochure). The conifers are now slowly being replaced by broadleaf trees , which are more natural to area. As a result of the Municipal reform of 2007 , Hanstholm Municipality ceasted to exist on 1 January 2007, when it was merged with Thisted and Sydthy municipalities to form the new Thisted Municipality . Hanstholm

1400-502: Was a part of Denmark at that time, with special boats across the Skagerrak . They exported food, mostly grain, and imported logs . There were no trees in the whole area, so wood was in high demand. The primary harbours for this trade were Vigsø and Klitmøller , the latter because they had water mills to produce flour . For this trade, special ships were designed, named 'sandskuder', meaning 'sand boats'. They were able to sail directly onto

1440-460: Was automated in 1970, and in 1979 the buildings associated with the lighthouse were converted to a museum about the nature and history of the surrounding area. From the top of the lighthouse, 65 metres above the ocean, you can see the entire area. During the Second World War , the citizens of Hansted were removed and Europe's biggest fortress was built by the Germans in this area. Large 38 cm. naval guns were installed, that could shoot almost half

1480-550: Was built in Hansted, and a 10-fold larger harbour town was needed. A new town was planned, covering the places Hansted, Gårddal and Nørby, and the new town was officially named Hanstholm. This has led to some confusion, because the people from the towns Ræhr and Vigsø live on Hanstholm (the former island), they live in Hanstholm postal district , they live in Hanstholm municipality , but they don't live in Hanstholm town. However, since all

1520-402: Was initially built in 1842, but the construction was too weak, so it had to be torn down and rebuilt in 1843. It was the first lens-based lighthouse in Denmark. When it was electrified in 1889, it became the strongest lighthouse in Denmark, and still is today, even though the light intensity has been lowered. In a period of its life, it was also the strongest lighthouse in the world. The lighthouse

1560-497: Was the first Danish brewery to introduce ecological beer and has a growing sale of its many speciality beer types. Secondary education includes the gymnasium and EUC Nordvest of Thisted. The latter offers technical and mercantile secondary education in Thy Uddannelsescenter which consists of several higher educations. Many youths leave the area for major centres of higher education such as Ålborg and Århus , and only

1600-661: Was the gatehead for King Canute the Holy 's plans to retake England from William the Conqueror , with 1,000 ships gathered in the Limfjord until the expedition was cancelled and a peasant uprising broke out. In the Second World War Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany . The German Wehrmacht built huge fortifications along the west coast of Jutland for fear that the allied invasion would take place here. The vast bunker complexes in Hanstholm have been restored and are open to

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