Stone circles, menhirs and rock carvings - on Bornholm it is possible to discover the legacies of the Nordic ancestors from the Bronze and Iron Ages with little travel effort. The menhirs, which are called building stones in northern Europe, can be seen e.g. in stone circle formations in Gryet.
In Louisenlund near Østermarie on Bornholm you will find Denmark's largest accumulation of building stones. There are around 70 elongated, mostly unworked menhirs up to 2.5 meters high, which bear neither pictures nor inscriptions. They stand upright individually or in groups and were set up in the early Bronze Age and the early Iron Age (1100 BC).
The original stand of menhirs is estimated to be even greater and the current ensemble owes its existence to the Danish King Frederik VII, who bought this area to give to his wife Louise Rasmussen, after whom the area was named. One enters the Louisenlund through a white wooden gate and is immediately captivated by the rather mystical atmosphere created by the stones, tall trees and their shadow play on the partly flower-covered ground.
Hellig Kvinde appears so suddenly on the road between Svaneke and Gudhjem, near the mouth of the Gyldenså that you inevitably drive past. But the beautiful coastal path along the Baltic Sea coast allows for an easy approach from a car park for a closer look at the roughly 2,500-year-old oval ship's structure. There are many stories about this place. An old legend tells that the big stone on the hill is a holy woman and the smaller stones are her children. They had been turned to stone to avoid imminent danger.
And finally, on Bornholm you reach the Bronze Age, which dates back to around 3000 years ago. Madsebakke is one of the most important sites of Bronze Age petroglyphs in all of Northern Europe when it comes to rock carvings found in the Allinge-Sandvig area. Here you can see 12 more or less heavily weathered pictures of ships as well as footprints, wheel crosses and small bowls, some of which can be seen below. The ships have different shapes and come from different periods. Some of these ship carvings show similarities with the oldest in Scandinavia around 350 BC. BC found real ship on, the Hjortspringboot.
