Odense

This university city (145 000 res.; 185 000 res. with suburbs) represents an island Fyn administrative center. During the  ancient times being  a place of honoring of the Supreme germano-Scandinavian deity of Odina, it is mentioned for the first time in chronicles from 988 In 1086 in church of St. Albana (not to confuse to the Catholic church of the same name formed only in the beginning of our century) king Knud has been killed. Its canonization has led to the fact that Odense became a place of mass pilgrimage. Port building in 1804 has given powerful spur to an economic development of the city.

In Odense continually you hear Hans Christian Andersen’s name. On circulation of the books he is, being expressed by the modern language, – “superstar”; besides, he carries the characteristic  of an image of “doll” Denmark, and in many countries it is known much better, than in the fatherland.

He has written more than 150 fairy tales for children and adults.

There were legends around Andersen’s name as the public of the beginning of XIX century couldn’t admit that a young man from the lower class could promote the honored writer. The rumor considered as he is the illegitimate son of king Christian VIII, under other version it had a reputation for the offspring of a certain aristocrat.

The facts are that: Andersen was born on April, 2nd, 1805 in Odense in a family of the street shoemaker and the laundress and has grown in extreme poverty. In 14 years he goes to Copenhagen and unsuccessfully tries to enter Royal theater as a pupil of  actor or  dancer. But climb up to the tops of glory he manages only as a storyteller while his

work in other areas of the literature, and also drawings and silhouettes cut out by him remain

almost unknown.

He has died and is buried in capital of Denmark in 1875, but the most important memoirs on the most well-known Dane are connected with a city of Odense.