Every design for Næstved

Næstved takes its name from two old words, næs, a small peninsula, and tved, a clearing in the woods, and the town really does sit by three of them, Ydernæs, Grimstrup Næs and Appenæs, on the banks of the Suså. People lived here long before the Viking Age, but the town's founding is dated to 1135, when Benedictine monks were given the church of Skt. Peders and the land around it. In the Middle Ages Næstved was among the most important towns on Zealand, and Skt. Peders Kirke and Skt. Mortens Kirke still anchor the old centre.

A walk through those streets brings the centuries close: Boderne and Helligåndshuset, the old barracks of Grønnegades Kaserne turned into a concert venue, and Næstved Museum with its displays of Kähler ceramics and Holmegaard glass. Herlufsholm, the oldest private boarding school in Denmark, grew out of the monks' monastery, and in summer the boat Friheden leaves from the middle of town along the canal to Gavnø Slot and out onto Karrebæk Fjord.

If Næstved is where you learned to cycle or saw your first concert, this map is yours: centuries of town, folded around the river you grew up beside.