Næstved is numbered among the oldest towns of the country and was one of the largest Danish towns in the Middle Ages. Today it has approximately 40,000 inhabitants and is thus one of the larger Danish provincial towns.
Næstved is a classic market and commercial town situated in the middle of a large and fertile hinterland. The roots go back to the early Iron Age, i.e. the period 4-500 A.D. At the bottom of the culture layer we find archaeological source material from that period under layers of refuse from the Viking Period and the Middle Ages.
The name of the town, Næs-tved, contains the suffix –tved from the Iron Age. Tved means a clearing in the forest (in medieval times this was typically expressed by the suffix –rød). Næs may refer to the special landscape with Ydernæs, Grimstrup Næs and Appenæs, which the ships had to pass to get to the town on the river Suså. Thus, Næstved probably means ”the clearance behind the forelands”.
We do not know much about the early settlement of Næstved, which nestles behind the hills Lerbjerget, Lisbjerget and Sandbjerget to the banks of the river Suså. The iron-age houses are hidden under the modern houses of the town – so far we have had the opportunity of examining the layers of refuse of the iron-age town.
During the late Viking Period and the early Middle Ages Næstved had developed into a large town situated on either side of the river Suså. In 1135 the part of the town on the left bank was called Store Næstved and the part on the right bank Lille Næstved. The aristocratic Bodil family owned large parts of Næstved in 1135 and rented out the farms. The bishop of Roskilde received an income from the parish churches, St. Peder and St. Morten, and until 1140 the king received the income from the market and city court. In addition we must assume an element of free citizens and a landless underclass. In 1135 and 1140 many of the properties and income of the town of Næstved were taken over by a new monastery community of the order of St. Benedict, Næstved St. Peders Monastery or Skovkloster, which was founded on 29 November 1135 by the Bodil family assisted by bishop and king.
Up to the Middle Ages Næstved was under the control of Skovkloster. The abbot was the mayor of Næstved. The old Torvekøbing developed into a market town with city council and (1280 at the latest) its own town arms picturing the cross keys. At the middle of the 13th century new ecclesiastical institutions came to the big town: the Gråbrødre Monastery about 1240, St. Jørgensgården in Aaderup not later than 1261 and the Sortebrødre Monastery before 1266. Civitas Nestvediensis was in capital form! During the 13th century Næstved came in second when it came to size and tax base right after the cathedral city of Roskilde – before Copenhagen and all the other towns on Zealand.
The hinterland of Næstved is an ancient settlement, where grain was grown and cattle was bred since the antiquity as an essential element of the financial basis of the bloom of the market town of Næstved. The boundaries of the hinterland are typically approximately two miles or approximately 15 km away from the town, i.e. the maximum distance that the farmers could cover morning and evening on a market day, if they were to do business on the market as well. Since the Middle Ages Næstved has had its fixed market days on Wednesday and Saturday. Thus, even the market days are a medieval relic of culture!
During the 14th century the Holsteiner controlled Næstved and had their support in the castle Husvolden on the southern outskirts of the town. Valdemar Atterdag captured Husvolden in 1345. The battle of Næstved in 1259 and the Warrior Grave on Sandbjerget, where the cut up corpses of 60 loosing warriors were pitted about 1300, are other relics of military action near Næstved.
One more couple of ecclesiastical institutions came to the town at the end of the 14th century, namely Helligåndshuset from about 1390 and a convent of the order of the Dominicans on Gavnø just after 1400. Næstved continued to develop, one reason being the close trade relations with Lübeck. During the 15th century the king gradually took over the control of Store Næstved, which became a royal market town again, whereas Lille Næstved survived as a village under Skovkloster. The 15th and 16th centuries were the golden age of Næstved, when the nobility and rich merchants erected many stone-built and probably even more half-timbered farms.
However, during the 17th century things went wrong: a cold and bad climate and the Dano-Swedish Wars put an end to the development. At the same time the Suså harbour and Mindegabet sanded up, which resulted in rough times for the trade. Only the military kept the wheels turning during the 18th century, when many half-timbered farms were reduced from two to one storey – the large floorages were no longer needed.
The Danneskjold-Samsøe canal from Tystrup Lake via the river Suså and Næstved to Karrebæksminde was built at the beginning of the 19th century in order to procure wood from the forests of Central Zealand for the households of Copenhagen. But not until the 1840s did Næstved experience major positive changes. Grain exports to England boosted the development and many of the old houses were replaced by new stone-built houses.
After the constitution in 1849 freedom of trade was introduced and in the 1850s the restrictions on the Danish market towns, including Næstved, were relaxed. In 1870 the railway came to Næstved and during the following decades the town developed explosively with the industrialism. During the latest 165 years the number of inhabitants has gone up from 2,271 in 1840 to about 40,000 today. And the development continues!
Also from a historical point of view it is very interesting that from 1 January 2007 the new large municipality of Næstved unites the ancient and mutually dependent elements of hinterland and market town into a modern whole to be administered with due respect for country and town.