Haslev

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Haslev is a town in Faxe municipality in the southern part of Zealand, Denmark about 60 km from Copenhagen. There are 14,781 inhabitants in Haslev (2005). Haslev is popular known as the school town with the green surroundings (skolebyen i det groenne). There are no less than 6 public-, 2 boarding-, 1 folk high- and 1 technical schools as well as 1 college of education and 1 sixth form college.

Close to Haslev town the estates and castles of Gisselfeld and Bregentved are situated.

[edit] History of Haslev

Haslev started out being a small village named Hasle with a few houses and streets around the church. The name was changed to Haslev to avoid confusing with other similar town names in Denmark.

In 1870 the railway line passing Haslev town was inaugurated. At that time Haslev only had 653 inhabitants. A street named Jernbanegade (Railwayroad) was paved in order to connect the church with the newly built train station. In the years that followed the street became the main street of the town with shops, banks etc. In 1911 the town had 3,668 inhabitants. In the 1980ies a square in the middle of the street was constructed.

During the 20th century Haslev grew rapidly and became a center for the Church Association for the Inner Mission in Denmark. The latter built a folk high school, sixth form college (with a boarding school) amoung others. In the 1970ies and 1980ies the schools became independent of the founding association.

Today there are only few remains of the Inner Mission in Haslev.

In the early 1970ies and onwards an entrepreneur named Ole Christiansen founded whole new neighbourhoods with one family houses with an attached garden at a low expense. This made a lot of families from all over Zealand and especially Copenhagen move to Haslev.