Gudhjem Vang

In the 19th century, “Gudhjem Vang” was the name given to the area on both sides of the road from Gudhjem to Melstedgård.

This country road was called “Vangevejen” and began at the Vang gate above Brøddan, by the old mill house, where a gate crossed the road.

Peter Koch tells how the boys of Gudhjem would often open and close the gate for the farmers, earning a few coins in the process, while saving the farmers from having to get on and off their horse-drawn carts.
Gudhjem Museum’s cadastral map from 1861 shows how “Gudhjem Vang” was divided into larger and smaller plots of land, and that all the residents down in the town – fishermen as well as farmers with one or two cows – owned a plot of land above the town. In other words, “they had land in the Vang”.

In his “Register of Properties in Gudhjem and Melsted”, which can be found on the museum’s website, Viggo Pedersen has recorded the size and names of the individual plots. Abildstykket, Gjagestykket, Gravageren, Hængedyngestykket, Trangadestykket, Rumpen, Myrestykket, Klippestykket and Raskageren were among the names.

Two owners in particular had large plots of land:
To the south was Hans Svendsen, owner of Melstedgård with Kallehullet and Melsted-engen, a total of 25 tønder land.

At the northern end, near the museum, was farmer Mads Mogensen, owner of Madsens Gaard at Brøddegade 34, with a total of 5 tønder land.

When Mads Mogensen took his own life in 1878 and left no heirs, the farm and the plots of land were purchased by Lars Madsen, son of miller Martinius Madsen.

The farm then remained in the same family for three generations. The two last owners, siblings Mogens and Inge Madsen, died in 1991 and 2010 respectively. Before that, however, Gudhjem Museum succeeded, through a testamentary inheritance, in acquiring the farm’s “land in the Vang” from Inge Madsen, who herself served as chairwoman of Gudhjem Museum from 1974 to 1999.

This is why this area, with its history of Gudhjem Vang, has now been transformed into a butterfly habitat, sculpture park and foraging garden under the name Gudhjem Museum Park.