Lendmarke – the industrial town
When standing at herring no. 1 - at the tourist office / House of Møn - and looking south west across the harbour, you can see the giant silos of the former sugar factory with beautiful red brick buildings behind the XL timber shop.
The factory - and the entire Lendemarke district - is a testimony of the third major period of the town’s economic development, the era of industrialism.
The Herring Route only covers the 'medieval town' or Stege town within the ramparts. But the town is actually a double town, consisting of Stege northeast of the harbour and the Lendemarke district, which has grown around the sugar factory, southwest of the harbour.
Stege Sukkerfabrik was - at the request of the local parliamentarian Frede Bojsen and with the famous Danish businessman Tietgen backing the project - established by The Danish Sugar Factories in 1887. For the next 100 years, the factory was the main industry of Møn until it closed down in 1989. It had up to 200 people permanently employed and up to 500 during the campaign season. It had hundreds of farmers signed up on supply contracts and 5 decentralized juice stations where the sugar beets were cut and cooked, after which the sugar juice was transported by carriage (later car), tanker and (in recent years) via long pipes to the Lendemarke factory. Until the renovation of the Møn bridge less than ten ago, one could still see the pipeline mounted on the bridge's rails.
The factory is one of the region's most important industrial heritage environments, and is definitely worth a visit. Today, the factory area is part of the town centre, with companies and larger stores. The group of owners are trying to develop the factory premises - especially the areas down towards the cove of Stege Bay - to a large holiday and experience centre.
On the other side of the Sugar Factory lie the large, industrial water basins which were established around 50 years ago for the precipitation and purification of beet water. Today, the basins are included in a conservation area with a fantastic birdlife - and an important recreation area for Lendemarke.
A trip to Lendemarkes pleasant little streets towards Stege Nor can also be recommended. So can a visit to Denmark’s Collectors Museum, ‘Thorsvang’. It is situated a little further out than the sugar factory on Kostervej. It consists of a man’s life-long collection of diverse effects and objects from closed shops and workshops as well as home fixtures from our parents and grandparents' time. There is also a café and restaurant with large banqueting rooms. It is all run by a large group of enthusiastic volunteers, all ready to tell the history of the place.
On Rødkildevej lies Rødkilde Højskole (i.e Rødkilde folk high school), established by Frede Bojsen in 1864. Today it functions as one of the country's leading theatre schools.
