Farum

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Farum church

Farum is a town in the northeast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark, 20 km northwest of Copenhagen. The town has a population of 18,105 (2006).^[1]

The town is part of Furesø municipality. Until 2006 it constituted Farum municipality.

[edit] History

Farum has existed for more than a thousand years. The name Farum means 'the place by the passage', referring to the ford between the two lakes Furesø and Farum Sø. Around 1100 the first stone church was built in the community, of which parts remain in the present church of Farum. In the 1300s a damming project flooded the old ford and redirected much of the traffic bound for Copenhagen towards Fiskebæk a short distance further south.

During recurrent wars with Sweden in the 1600s the area suffered enormous damage.

In 1800 the town was transferred from Copenhagen rider district to Frederiksborg County. Around this time the economy of the area revived with renewed cultivation of the fertile agricultural land. Throughout the 19th century the community expanded economically. In 1906 the community was linked to the capital by the railway between Copenhagen and Slangerup, which in 1977 became the Hareskovbanen radial of Copenhagen's S-train system.

In the early 1950s the population was ca. 4000. Through the 1960s and 1970s the community turned into a commuter town due to its proximity to Copenhagen and the population expanded past 10,000. By 1980 the population was over 16,000.