Gudhjem Tourist Information
Watch out! Get off your bike and wheel it! The streets of Gudhjem are so steep towards the harbour that it is prohibited to cycle – down the hill. Just try up! Gudhjem is the most peculiar skerries town of Bornholm. See for yourself how the red tiled roofs, the vigorous gardens and the grey cliffs are draped dramatically around the cliff harbour.
Go to the town centre and leave the main street with its many shops. Find the small streets and paths, where the mulberries and figs are growing in sunny cliff gardens. Here, you can smell the gardens and the woodbines of the cliff area. Then search for one of the high spots with a good view.
On top of Bokul, the cliff knoll above the town, you find the high flagstaff with the fluttering Danish flag. Here, you can survey the roofs of the town, the cliff valleys and let your eyes run over the distant horizon. On the edge, Christiansø is still balancing.
Behind Bokul, the street Helligdomsvej turns towards the Holka-bridge, which slender pillars are flying above the Holka-valley and the half-timbered houses of the town, and in this way, it tells about modern times. From here you can see the town and Gudhjem Church, which lies on the next peak. Precisely as the painter Oluf Høst has painted the town.
Less high, but just above the inner basin of Gudhjem Harbour, the cliffs give you solid ground and another observation post. Here, you can follow life on the harbour and see the sun go down above the roofs of the town and the many chimneys of the smokehouses.
In the town and at the harbour you find lots of liveliness. Yachts, small boats and the boats of the company Christiansøfarten traffic the harbour. Shops, ceramists and a working glass factory, a smokehouse and a soft ice shop are all contributing to the life around the harbour.
The steep Brøddegade leads you through the town, which has many shops and restaurants, which are offering everything what a guest desires. If you go in the other direction, Brøddegade becomes Løkkegade and here, you pass the traditional Gudhjem-houses with the cellars on top of the cliffs. You get to the other harbour of the town, Nørresand, where the ships could enter even in a north-easterly fresh breeze, when the entrance to Gudhjem Harbour was too dangerous.
Right before the harbour Nørresand you find the Oluf Høst Museum, which is situated in the home and the studio of the painter. Like no one else, Oluf Høst (1884-1966) painted the national soul of the natives of Bornholm. He was born in Svaneke, but lived his adult productive painter-life in Gudhjem. With his many paintings he has interpreted nature, light and atmosphere around Gudhjem.
From the northern outskirts of the town, the serpentine road Nørresand leads you to Helligdomsvej, the coast road between Svaneke and Tejn. Fresh people though prefer the path, which leaves the winding road in the first bend. Follow the rocky path pass the Hestestenene around Salene Bay to Helligdomsklipperne and the Art Museum of Bornholm – a fantastic walk of 6 km. And then go home by sea (or reverse) with the excursion boat Thor, which sails between Helligdomsklipperne and Gudhjem Harbour. Then you could do with a smoked herring served in the right way. ”Sol over Gudhjem” is the name and it can be consumed in the open with a view to the sea. But do not leave it, while getting a beer. The gulls er fast here!
Since 1886, people have liked the smoked herrings from Gudhjem. The first smokehouse was built here, on Ejnar Mikkelsens Vej 13 and it is still situated here, just as innumerable other smokehouses of the town. But today, only this smokehouse on the harbour smokes herrings in Gudhjem.
Gudhjem Museum, above the town, is located in the old station building, which was the end station of the Gudhjem-track. Today, the very special and beautiful building contains the local history division of the museum.
A number of workshops and galleries are the reason why the art traditions of Gudhjem continuously are developing. Visit one of these or one of the museums. See, feel and sense the paintings and the expressions. Buy something or browse.
Scala Gudhjem is the modern cinema of the town and is situated in Brøddegade. Above the town, at the stadium, you find the swimming baths of the town.
Close to Gudhjem and Melsted there are several good camping sites, directly to the coast. And at the harbour, you find the youth hostel, which is located in the old merchant’s house, Sct. Jørgensgård. In Gudhjem, you find several cosy pensions and hotels with old traditions.
Next neighbouring town is Melsted, which offers an unusual well-preserved half-timbered idyll thanks to the development of the fishing industry. During the fifties, the boats became too big for the harbour of Melsted and the fishing industry moved to other places. The town has upheld its fine houses and many of them are from the 19th century and several even from the 18th century.
The agricultural museum Melstedgård is a working open-air museum situated on a beautiful farm with a farmhouse from 1796, animals of old breeds in the stables and activities all over. The large agricultural garden is also preserved with old types of fruit trees, ornamental flowers and a kitchen garden. Here, a sphere of volunteer people and Bornholms Museum let the pass talk.
In Melsted the sandy beach tempts with its dunes and shady trees around the mouth of Melsted stream, where the children are climbing and building dams, while Mum and Dad are sunbathing.
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