In the middle of the world

I was longing for a peaceful and quite day somewhere, preferably on a small island, and Drejø was a perfect destination for that purpose.

Located south of Funen, with an area of approx. 4 km2 and about 70 inhabitants, it was a good place to have a break from the busyness of everyday life.

Drejø was formed for about 8000 years ago when the sea rose and a mainland was transformed into an archipelago. Two of the islands were the hilly Skoven (English: Forest; it was obviously covered with forest) and the flat Drejø. Later on, the sea connected the islands by a narrow land of deposits of stone and gravel which is today around 70 m wide. Nowadays, these two islands are one island and called Drejø, but one can still see the name Skoven on the maps.

Drejø lies in the middle of the South Funen Archipelago, and has approx. the same distance to the nearby islands. Hence the expression that Drejø is “in the middle of the world”.

About 1 hour flight from Holbæk, and together with Flemming we were ready to embrace the sunny escape.

On final to runway 30 of the island’s airstrip:

Johannes had already delivered bikes, and we happily got on the road:

Roosters and hens were very curious when we came by. Did you know that there are more chickens in the world than any other bird?

We reached the westernmost tip of the island and its highest point – Drejø cliff. We didn’t dare to stand on its edge – so steep it was. And with 17 m over the sea level one can always have a nice viewing point there.

After a short break on its top, we continued our tour around the Skoven and stopped when we saw something that attracted our attention, like the solid stone wall on the photo below. It was so high! I asked Flemming to stand by its side (he is 192 cm tall):

A visit to the northern side of Skoven:

Charming old houses from the 19th century:

Drejø was first mentioned in 1231 when it was probably the Royal hunting reserve. A small community was living on the island in the beginning of 15th century, and it was at that time the nearby market town of Svendborg complained to the King about people from Drejø handling with Germany behind their back.

In the middle of the Drejø By village, a memorial rock tells a visitor about the 27 farms that were on the island before the fire of 1942:

11 farms and 7 houses burned down in just 4 hours during the Midsummer Day of 1942. The buildings stood very close to each other, and almost all had thatched roofs which contributed to the quick spreading of fire. Fortunately, no people or animals got hurt.

After spending some time in the empty old harbour we biked to the newer one that was also empty. In fact, the whole island was empty – and we enjoyed it! We met a very cute cat on our way, an unfriendly small dog, a flock of deer, some sheep, and a couple of geese.

Whilst Flemming and I were having fun, the Aviator took a nap (he was tired):

Before going back home, we wanted to see the Drejø church. On my previous visits I never had a chance to do it, and now we had the time.

Until 1535 Drejø belonged to the church in Ærøskøbing on the island of Ærø. It gave many dangerous journeys across the sea on winter days. During such a trip, two families sailed to Ærø in order to baptise their children, and all drowned. It was a terrible accident; Drejø was subsequently given the Royal permission to build a church.

Normally a church in Denmark is built up on a hill, so that one goes up to the church. It’s not the case on Drejø where one goes down the hill to the church, and there is an interesting story behind.

The original plan was to build a church in a different place, and the first building materials were delivered there. But a strange thing happened: during the night they somehow moved to the nearby lower lying swamp area. In the morning the peasants would move it back, up the hill again, but the following nights the same mystic thing happened. Then one of the farmers told of a dream he had had: a black cross was lying in that swampy place. When they dug, there was indeed a black cross buried there – an omen from Heaven, it was thought. And that’s why the Drejø church was built there.

Inside, it was very small, but nice and cosy. Wooden memory plates from the 19th century graves were exhibited on the walls – I’ve never seen anything like that before. The text on them told us about a person, who (s)he was married to and for how many years, how many children they had and how many of them had died.

The wooden cross was reused: originally it was on one man’s wife grave who died relatively early. When the widower died about 30 years later, the cross was re-painted with his name and placed on his grave.

There was also a handbook describing all families buried on the graveyard – what they did for living, with family pictures, etc. It was fascinating, also something I’ve never seen before in a church.

We spent our last hours on the island on the beach by the airstrip, enjoying the sunshine, collecting fossilized animals and plants, and listening to the gentle sound of waves crashing on the shore:

We finally left, and flew over the island before heading for Holbæk. Drejø By village from above: