Visual Bornholm
Published by Visual Media ApS
Designed by Miru Studio
Text: Mads Westermann Foto:Anders Beier
A Russian bear, a yellow ghost wandering the streets of Rønne under the full moon, and a well-hidden memorial stone marking a political assassination that had great significance for both Bornholm and the rest of Denmark. It is all part of Rønne’s history and folklore. These are some of the things you can experience when walking around Rønne.
Just after lunch, on May 7, 1945, one could witness formations of Soviet bombers flying low over the harbor and town square – at the foot of Sct. Nicolai Church’s tower on Kirkepladsen. With screaming engines, in clouds of fire, smoke, and rubble, the Russian planes dropped their deadly load of incendiary and explosive bombs. The Soviet bombs did not only strike military targets. They also turned random houses in Rønne’s old town into smoldering piles of ruins.
More than 90 percent of Rønne’s houses were damaged, and 212 houses were completely destroyed. Large parts of Damgade became rubble. Several residents of Rønne perished, and many more were injured.
After the bombing, the renowned ceramic artist Lars Thirslund created three reliefs to remind the present of the traumatic chapter in Rønne’s history. One of them can be seen above the front door of the small house at Kirkepladsen 14. It was completely destroyed but rebuilt and decorated with one of Thirslund’s reliefs. It depicts “The Bombing and Evacuation of Rønne.”
Just around the corner, at Kirkestræde 4, sits another of Thirslund’s reliefs, “The Liberation,” showing the celebration when the Russian occupation troops left Bornholm on April 5, 1946.
The last of Lars Thirslund’s reliefs can be found on the opposite end of town. Above the main entrance at Nørregade 39 sits “The Reconstruction,” which depicts the major effort of rebuilding Rønne after the destruction.
In Møllegade, just across from number 12, stands the Russian bear on a pillar with the inscription: “Here the Russian bear stopped.” The bear was created and erected by woodcarver Christian Koefoed in gratitude that his own house was not destroyed during the bombing. The neighboring houses were demolished, but Christian Koefoed’s house escaped almost unscathed.
Together with the bear on the pillar, Christian Koefoed created a relief depicting the bombing. You can see it above the entrance to the house, just to the right of the bear.
In 1955, on the 10-year anniversary of the Russian “liberation” of Bornholm, Soviet journalists visited the island. They mistakenly perceived Christian Koefoed’s artwork as an anti-Russian provocation. This sparked a brief diplomatic crisis between Denmark and the Soviet Union.
Even in more recent times, Koefoed’s bear on the pillar has carried geopolitical significance. In an interview with Bornholms Tidende, the current homeowner shared that when she painted the bear’s eyes blue in the autumn of 1989, only a few days passed before the Berlin Wall fell.
Another reminder of a dramatic chapter in Bornholm’s history can be found in Storegade, right where Storegade and Rådhusstræde meet. In the middle of the street, there’s a hole where a few cobblestones peek through the asphalt. One of the stones is inscribed with the year 1658. At that time, Bornholm was part of Sweden and governed by the despised Swedish commandant Johan Printzensköld.
On December 8, 1658, Printzensköld had ridden from Hammershus to Rønne to meet with the city’s mayor, Claus Kam. A group of Bornholm freedom fighters, led by the merchant Villum Clausen, burst into the meeting. After a brief and heated confrontation, the resistance fighters dragged Printzensköld out onto Storegade — right where the stone now protrudes from the asphalt — and there, Villum Clausen shot the commandant.
As the commandant’s blood flowed over the cobblestones and he drew his final breaths, Villum Clausen’s two accomplices, Jens Pedersen Kofoed and Niels Gumløse, also raised their weapons and fired — to share the responsibility for the killing with Clausen.
The assassination of Printzensköld marked the beginning of a Bornholm uprising against the Swedish occupiers. Just three weeks later, the last Swedish soldier had been driven from the island, and Bornholm was once again Danish.
he yellow ghost, who walks the streets of Rønne under the full moon, can be found at the corner of Bagergade and Vimmelskaftet. But you have to look closely to see it. Only the ghost’s face is visible in broad daylight, hidden behind a beautiful Bornholm fig tree.
According to legend, it is a young man trapped within the wall. He is doomed to remain there until a passerby stops and eats the fruit of the fig tree. When that happens, he is released on the next full moon night and can freely roam the cobbled streets of old Rønne. But as soon as the first rays of morning sunlight touch the spire of Sct. Nicolai Church, he must return to the wall and stay there—until another visitor again takes a bite of one of the tree’s sweet and juicy fruits.
Who he is, why he’s trapped in the wall, and what he does during his rare nights of freedom—those mysteries are lost in the mists of time.
Hvem han er, og hvorfor han er fanget i muren, hvad han foretager sig, når han en sjælden gang får en enkelt fuldmånenat med uledsaget udgang, det fortaber sig i historiens tåger.
