Viborg, Denmark

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Viborg, is a town located in central Jutland, Denmark. It is the seat of both Viborg municipality and Viborg County (the County will be abolished on 31 December 2006). On 1 January 2007, Viborg will become the seat of Region Midtjylland, one of the five new Regions that in some ways will replace the traditional counties. Viborg is also the seat of the Western High Court; the High Court for the Jutland peninsula.

Viborg is one of the oldest towns in Denmark; with viking-settlements dating back to the 8.th century. Due to its central location, the town had great strategic importance, in political and religious matters, during the Middle Ages. A motte-and-bailey type castle were once located in the town. Viborg takes its name from a combination of two words: Wii, meaning a holy place and berg, meaning a hill.

Viborg is famous for its cathedral. The construction of the cathedral started in 1130 and lasted about 50 years. The building has burned to the ground and been re-built several times. Only the crypt of the original cathedral is still preserved. The newest parts of the church are from 1876. The cathedral is famed for its many paintings by Danish painter Joakim Skovgaard depicting stories from the bible. Neighbour to the cathedral is the Joakim Skovgaard Museum. According to legend, Viborg was once the home of around twenty monasteries.

[edit] In Popular Culture

In the Science Fiction book The Corridors of Time by Poul Anderson, a Danish-American writer who did considerable reaserch on Danish history, a large part of the plot takes place in Sixteenth Century Viborg. The main protagonist - an American time-travller from the Twentieth Century - arrives in the city in 1535 and gets involved with the adherents of the overthrown King Christian II and of the peasant rebel leader Skipper Clement, who face savage persecution in the city.

Viborg has over the last decade won a reputation as one of Denmark's leading cities for sports. It started with the city's women handball team (a popular sport in Denmark), who continues to be one of Europes' top-5 clubs and since then both the men's handball team and most notably the professional football (as in soccer) team have established themselves at the top of the Danish leagues. Viborg FF has since 1998 been a constant member in the Danish Superliga, reaching an all time high when winning the Danish cup in 2000.

[edit] Education

Viborg is home to a number of educational institutions, including "Viborg Katedralskole", Denmark's oldest educational institution celebrating its 900th birthday in the year 2000. The name "Katedralskole" (Cathedral School) refers to the institutions former close connection with the cathedral; the school is believed to have been founded about 1060 - the same time, the city became a site of a bishop. The church needed to educate boys and young men to enter into the church's service, thus creating a school. Its current monumental home was build in 1926 to accommodate a larger number of students and later the school added a dorm to house the many students from outer regions or islands not close to a gymnasium. Although this role is now basically obsolete, the dorm continues to be a popular solution to many students wanting to get away from home or from a small number of students from Greenland. "Viborg Katedralskole" is today one of two gymnasiums in Viborg.