Skagen

A fishing port for centuries, Skagen's luminous heath-and-dune landscape was discovered in the mid-1800s by artists, and in more recent times by summering urbanites. The peninsula is lined with fine beaches, including a sandy stretch just a 15-minute walk from the town centre. The Skagens Museum displays the paintings of P S Krøyer, Michael & Anna Ancher and other artists who flocked to Skagen between 1830 and 1930 to 'paint the light'. Denmark's northernmost point is the long curving sweep of sand at Grenen, 3km north-east of Skagen. The path to the beach crosses rose-covered dunes, its highest point passing the grave of the poet Holger Drachmann (1846-1908). Den Tilsandede Kirke, 'The Buried Church', is a whitewashed medieval church tower, still protuding above the sand dunes that buried the surrounding village and farms in the late 1700s. The church itself, once the largest in the country, was closed in 1795 because sand drifts kept blocking the doorway. It was finally torn down in 1810, although the tower was spared to allow it to function as a navigational landmark. Skagen is situated on Jutland's northern tip.