Hedeby: Prestigious Trading Center And One Of The Largest Baltic Sea Ports In Viking Age

A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com – Hedeby was the southernmost Nordic town and a key trading center in the Viking Age.

Reconstructed house at Hedeby. Image credit: Matthias Süßen – CC BY-SA 4.0

Located in southern Denmark, Hedeby was founded around the year 810 by the Danish King Godfred (Godfrey) of Denmark, who arrived with his army in 604 and destroyed the Slavic market town Reric, which many historians presume is today’s modern city of Rostock.

Instead, he founded a new trading center and all merchants of Reric moved to Hedeby, at the southeastern base of the Jutland Peninsula on the Schlei Fjord and the Baltic Sea to the East.

Source: AncientPages.com – Read the rest of the article here