Marielyst
For more than 100 years’ Marielyst has been the favoured bathing resort on the Danish Baltic Sea coast.
Then as now, Marielyst offers a combination of unspoiled nature and the 20 km long child-friendly white, sandy beach with room for both sun bathing, water activities, and a large variety of shops, cafés and restaurants in the high street and central square Larsens Plads.
This square was renovated in recent years with due respect to the past, and you walk on a 4,500 m2 large oak plank surface. During the main tourist season, live music is often played there. Along the coast, you find farm shops and a multitude of activities for the whole family.
The development into this large holiday resort followed the large flooding on 13th November 1872. Lives were lost and many houses destroyed. The farmers suffered as the reconstruction of buildings was costly. One farmer, Hans Jørgensen, had named his farm after his wife Marie. She already saw possibilities in turning the farm into a B&B and made preparations for this. However, she died before this became a reality.
In 1906 the farm Marielyst came into the ownership of a consortium headed by Frederik Graae through a forced sale at auction. He established the Marielyst Baltic Sea Resort (=Østersøbadet). This should be in the same league as Skagen in the North of Jutland and i.a. include lodgings for stage artists.
Graae also built the first holiday homes, and from there on Marielyst developed rapidly. At first high society from Copenhagen came as guest, and gradually also people from the local region. By 1940, around 600 holiday homes had been built. The holiday association Dansk Folkeferie, whose purpose it was to give people with limited means the possibility to enjoy a holiday, established its holiday resort there in 1942, and gradually also camp sites were developed.
Today there are more than 7000 holiday homes along the coast attracting thousands every year. Marielyst remains the hotspot for a beach holiday by the Baltic Sea.
