Border regions have always played a significant role in a country’s history. Especially here, in the land between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, Northern and Central Europe. The village of Haithabu (in Danish “Hedeby”) held an important strategic location here several hundred years ago. The Viking settlement was one of the trading centers in the Middle Ages. It was connected to the Danewerk border fortification, a protective wall that was repeatedly being expanded. Today it comprises of a 30 kilometers long rampart. The oldest parts are said to have been built by native Danes around 1,500 years ago. Their goal? Among other things, they wanted to prevent the Holsteinian Saxons from invading their empire. Haithabu and Danewerk were jointly declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018 as an "extraordinary testimony to the trade and exchange relations between the North and Baltic Seas, as well as Northern and Central Europe in the Viking Age".