1792 Travel Guide

Hammershus is Northern Europe's largest medieval castle ruin, crowning a black basalt cliff at Bornholm's northern tip above the Baltic, built in the 13th century as a royal fortress and prison. Surviving walls, towers and a cistern sketch its former grandeur among the grass; a new cantilevered viewpoint lets visitors safely overlook the whole ruin and sea cliff. Both a historic site and a hiking-photography spot, its wind and broken walls tell of Nordic power's shifts through the ages.

Østerlars is Bornholm's largest and most famous round church, built in the late 12th century with thick stone walls and a central pillar supporting two storeys, originally both a place of worship and a defensive stronghold. Inside survive medieval murals and ancient rune marks; a narrow stair climbs to the top for views over countryside and sea. A rare example of Nordic round-church form and a spiritual landmark of the 'island of the sun', it stands solemn and mysterious amid the fields.

Gudhjem is Bornholm's most charming fishing village in the Baltic, red-roofed houses stepping down a granite slope to the harbour — among Denmark's sunniest corners. The village is famed for smoked herring ('sol over Gudhjem'), its port full of painted wooden boats, stone lanes keeping an old fishing-port texture. From here ferries sail to Sweden and Christiansø; it is also the start of island cycling and craft-beer tasting — the face of Bornholm's slow life.