The Golden Horn Treasure from Gallehus near Tønder

In 1639, the young lace maker Kirsten Svendsdatter literarely stumbled across a golden treasure in a field in Gallehus, north of the city Møgeltønder. It was a 71 cm long golden horn sticking out of the ground, weighing in at 3 kg. About 100 years later, farmer Erik Lassen found another, smaller, but heavier golden horn weighing 3.5 kg in the same field. These two valuable drinking or blowing horns with Nordic runes date back to the 5th century and were probably sacrificial offerings. In 1802, a goldsmith stole the precious items from the art chamber at Christiansborg Palace and melted them down. A tragedy - as these finds are considered to be the most important ones from the Danish Iron Age! Still, precise drawings allowed copies to be made from gilded silver. Today, visitors can admire the fine replicas at Schackenborg Castle and the Sønderjylland Museum, among other places.