ODENSE, 5'nen-sA. The largest city on the island of Fawn, Denmark, capital of Odense Aint, constituting the northern half of the island, and the third city in population in the Kingdom. It is situated on the Odense River near its mouth in the Odense Fiord (Map: Denmark, D 3). Its streets are well paved. and the city has many handsome modern houses. It is lighted by gas and electricity, and was the first city in Den mark to have water distributed to the houses through pipes. The most notable building is the Cathedral of Saint Canute, built in the thir teenth century, the best example of Gothic arehitecture in Denmark. Here are buried several distinguished Dani-li monarchs. The Church of Our Lady. built in the twelfth century, is the oldest edifiec in the town. Other buildings worthy of note are the Odense Castle, erected by Frederick IV., and surrounded by a beautiful park. the large monumental city hall. and the new post-otlice. The chief educational institu tions are a seminary, a technical and an agrieul tural school, two libraries of 36.000 volumes each, and an archaeological museum.
The city is of great industrial and commereint importance. The chief industrial establishments are breweries, distilleries. tobacco factories, machine shops, textile mills, and sugar refineries. The harbor eonsists of two elongated basins forming the forked extremity of the Odense Ship Canal, opening into the fiord. Further improvements and extensions are now being made, and the town is the chief railroad and commercial centre of Fiinen, exporting but ter, cheese, hides, and bacon in considerable quan tities. The population has increased sevenfold during the past century. In 1S90 it was 30,277, and in 1901, 40,138.
Odense dates from the legendary period of Danish history. It became a bishop's see early in the eleventh century, and several councils of archbishops were held here. In the sixteenth century the city was the meeting place of several parliaments. It suffered severely during the Swedish occupation in 1658-60. Odense is the birthplace of Bans Christian Andersen.