Visit to Helsingør (Elsinore)
…with the family. Once a wealthy Hanse town, the town is situated on the narrow passage of Øresund, which is connecting the North Sea and the Baltic.
Remarkably few non-British towns have an English name of their own (like Cologne or Munich), and Elsinore is one of them. Many tourists come to see Kronborg castle where Hamlet lived.
The main picture is depicting the door to the travelling craftsmen’s club, “Navergården”.
Naver is an abbreviation for Scandinavians, which is used for travelling craftsmen from Scandinavia. A naver travels around Europe and does occasional work within his trade.
Especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, journeymen traveled abroad to improve their skills. Traditionally, masters of the trade in other countries were obliged to offer work or a meal to the naver. There are rules and traditions for travelling navers; among other things, a naver may only stay in the same place for six months. In total, a naver was normally travelling for three years in order to obtain a complete education as a prerequisite for, among other things, being able to become a master himself.
He had to have a wanderer's book as proof of his rights to the authorities where he arrived. The naver tradition still exists, especially within the carpentry trade in Germany and Switzerland.
Denmark is the Scandinavian country from which the most travelling craftsmen came, especially in Germany. The largest Danish travellers’ club is located in Helsingør, founded in 1919 and with around 150 members (2020).
Wikipedia.dk [translated with help from Google Translate]
The extras are showing: a view from St Mary’s abbey, where the composer Dietrich Buxtehude spent several years as an organist; a ferry boat departing for Helsingborg on the Swedish side of the Øresund; historic steamer “Bjørn” (=bear) moored in the old harbour.
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