As the glare of the sun starts to soften, I set off for the beach, passing bulky steel buildings on the harbour and rows of yellow houses with terracotta roof tiles and neat picket fences. I’m not alone. People with rattan hampers and woollen blankets are heading in the same direction and a crowd has already assembled.
I clamber up a steep dune, the fine grains shifting under my feet, and look for an empty spaces. Normally the west coast of the peninsula is the place to be at sunset, but not tonight.
Skagen, Denmark’s northernmost town, sits on a narrow strip of land at the top of Jutland. It’s midsummer, Sankt Hans Aften (Saint John’s Eve), when bonfires are lit along the coast and across the country. Singing, quiet chatter and a subdued sense of excitement fill the air until the pile of dry branches on the beach is finally lit, the flames taking hold in seconds.
This particular scene on the eastern beach of Sønderstrand was made famous by Danish artist PS Krøyer in 1906. His large canvas painting, Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen’s Beach, is known all over Denmark and remains one of the main reasons people come here in June.
Summer Day at the South Beach, Skagen. The painting is an 1884 oil canvas by the renowned Danish realist and impressionist artist Peder Severin Krøyer (Photo: Picturenow/Getty)
“Krøyer spent almost 10 years working on the canvas, so we know it had some kind of meaning to him, that it was important for him to finish it before he died,” says Anna Mørch, an art historian and curator at Skagens Museum.
Krøyer was part of an artists’ colony that came to the fishing village in the late 1800s. Known as the Skagen Painters, the close-knit group was attracted by the natural light, far-reaching horizons, wild landscapes and turbulent waters, as well as the local community and the hard existence that came with the remote location. In many ways, it’s Denmark’s answer to St Ives. And for summer visitors, the climate is mild, rarely exceeding 21°C.
The work of Anna Ancher was on display at London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery earlier this year. The first major UK exhibition dedicated to the artist, it focused on Ancher as one of Denmark’s most celebrated artists and the only member of the colony to have been born in Skagen.
Ruths Hotel in Skagen (Photo: Mette Johnsen/Visit Denmark)
Anna and her husband Michael’s former residence can be found in the heart of old town, along with the Skagens Museum, home to the world’s largest collection of works by the Skagen Painters (including Krøyer’s canvas), and the red brick Brøndums Hotel, which served as a central meeting point for the artists.
The original hotel dining room has become part of the museum, but it is still possible to stay and eat in the main Brøndums building. The light-flooded restaurant with windows on two sides serves elegant dishes such as salted cod with gherkins and cucumber ice cream, or slow-roasted pork with apple compote and blanched cabbage.
This was once the only inn in the town. “Today, tourism makes up around a quarter of our economy; fishing and the shipyard are also important,” local resident and guide Niels Bünemann tells me “When I was a kid, fishing was dominated by small ships, but it’s more industrialised now, more efficient and slightly less romantic.”
A house by the beach in Skagen. The town sits on a narrow strip of land at the top of Jutland (Photo: Anne-Sophie Rosenvinge/Visit Denmark)
Beyond the port infrastructure and the cruise ships that dock there, the romance of the coastline is clear to see. Within the inner harbour, a row of red gabled buildings once used for fish packing is now a strip of restaurants, including Skagen Fiskerestaurant, which serves oysters with sea buckthorn vinaigrette and platters of Skagen shrimp and juniper-smoked salmon.
Just to the north of the town is the tip of the country, where the strong currents of the Skagerrak (part of the North Sea) meet the calmer waters of the Kattegat (part of the Baltic). A walk past the cracked concrete of wartime bunkers and along a pristine stretch of beach leads to a sandbank where the waves collide and people take turns putting a foot in each sea.
Historic lighthouse Det Grå Fyr operates as an observatory for migratory birds, while its old stable buildings are home to the restaurant Blink. Run by Heine and Christel Kristoffersen, who recently moved here from Copenhagen, the modern bistro focuses on locally sourced products, including seaweed, berries and coastal herbs. “The fish is so fresh up here, I don’t have to add any eggs or flour to our fishcakes,” Christel tells me.
The open-air Coastal Museum chronicles the development of the peninsula, but the greatest reminder of the harsh conditions that once defined life here is Den Tilsandede Kirke, the sand-buried church.
Den Tilsandede Kirke (Photo: Peter Jorgensen/Visit Denmark)
Battered by sandstorms and finally abandoned in 1795 after the congregation had to continually dig out the entrance, its whitewashed tower now stands isolated in the western dunes.
As the evening continues and the midsummer fire at Sønderstrand dies down, but many young people stay.
“A huge trend in Denmark, especially on social media, is to dub the summer a ‘Krøyer summer’,” Mørch explains. “Even though the painting is 120 years old, you can still understand that they are having a party, that they are together, that there is a good vibe.”
Phones might document the occasion today, but the idea and significance remain the same. “The town has grown, but it’s all still here, just where the artists left it,” Mørch says.
How to get there
Norwegian flies nonstop from Gatwick to Aalborg. Skagen is a two-hour train journey from Aalborg’s central station or Lindholm.
Where to stay
Skagen Harbour Hotel has doubles from 995 DKK (£113) including breakfast.
More information
The writer was a guest of VisitDenmark and DestinationNord.