Ribe

The oldest town in Denmark, and a commercial centre by the early eighth century. Coins may have been struck here as early as 720, and of the more than 300 sceattas found in the country, 216 come from in or around Ribe. Trade ran mostly to Frisia and England. A two-metre ditch was dug round the town early in the ninth century, enclosing twelve hectares, later replaced by a moat six or seven metres wide. When Ansgar set out to christianise Scandinavia around 860 he asked the Danish king for the first Scandinavian church to be built here.