Keeping Through The Ages. As long as roads have existed and man has travelled, there has been a need for a shelter for the night, a meal, and a place to rest for man and horse.
Record of the first inns dates back to 550 B.C. in Persia, where they were situated with intervals at a distance of 17 kilometres along important roads.
In the Middle Ages it was more common for travellers to call on monasteries and vicarages for accommodation.
The first Danish inn to be granted a royal licence was Bromølle Kro in Zealand in the year 1198 at the time of King Knud IV.
In 1283, King Erik Klipping decided that inns were to be established near the so-called royal roads and ferries, which the king would pass when travelling round the country. Incidentally, King Erik Klipping was assassinated in 1286, when he spent the night in a barn, as there was no inn in the neighbourhood.
In 1396 Queen Margrethe I laid down that the distance between the inns was to be four Danish miles, amended to two Danish miles by King Christian II in 1522 in his civil law.
After the Reformation in 1536, many royally licensed inns saw the light of the day, and the last three were founded in 1912.
In return for providing beds and meals for travellers, the innkeeper was entitled to distil aquavit, brew beer, and bake bread free of excise duties for on- and off-premise consumption. Furthermore, he was not obliged to provide accommodation for soldiers. Strangely, the villagers were not allowed to go to the inn for several centuries, it was intended for travellers only (a provision which has been abolished long ago).
Denmark boasts about 450 charming inns, 113 of which have a royal licence. A few have preserved their original appearance, some have been burnt down and rebuilt, or have moved to the other side of the road. But all 113 royally licensed inns have been continuously in business ever since they received their licence.
Denmark is the only country in the world with royally licensed inns.
