Every design for Fredericia

On Fredericia Vold, the ramparts still ring the town centre as they did when the fortress was raised for Frederik III in the seventeenth century. The king wanted a stronghold to guard Jutland and the crossing to Funen over the Lillebælt, and the town was first named Frederiksodde before it took the Latinised name Fredericia. Its proudest day came in the Battle of Fredericia during the First War of Schleswig, when Danish troops broke a siege of the town, and every sixth of July the victory is still celebrated, with Den Tapre Landsoldat looking on.

What sets Fredericia apart from other Danish towns is its grid: streets running straight north to south and east to west inside some of the best-preserved ramparts in Northern Europe. It very nearly became the capital, and today it is one of the country's great traffic hubs, where rail lines meet and the army's Telegrafregimentet is still at home. Fredericia Bymuseum and Det Hvide Vandtårn keep the past in view.

Coming back across the bridge over the Lillebælt, the straight streets and the old ramparts are how you know you are home.