Mark Jefferies flew at Roskilde airshow

The air display was sponsored by Exxon to promote the new aviation oil “Elite”
Global Airshows can bring a solo or multi aircraft air displays to your venue. We can also provide the complete package of aircraft and pilots tailored to your specific needs.

Times before year 1000
Vikings must have known well and valued the site of Roskilde; the town is mentioned on coins from Knud the Great period. Viking ships founded in Roskilde fjord could have been sunk there on purpose to block the access to the town.
Officially it was King Harald the Bluetooth who founded Roskilde sometimes before year 980, although there are legends saying that the founder was King Ro (Roar) in the early 6th century.

The Middle Ages
Already in the 10th century Roskilde was a residence for kings and bishops, the first stone church, Saint Clemens´, was build in 1030.
Roskilde continued to play significant religious and political role in medieval Denmark, being a sort of ecclesiastic vice-capital of Denmark (the archiepiscopal centre was in Lund). It was considered to be the biggest town in medieval northern Europe with 5 to 10, 000 inhabitants. By the end of the Middle Ages there were at least 14 parish churches and five monasteries and one convent in Roskilde.

The first king to be buried in this royal sepulchral town to be was its founder Harald I Bluetooth. The town became favourite burial place of the Royal Family since Queen Margaret I was entombed there in 1412.

The modern era
First when the king moved out to Copenhagen (in 1443), and definitely after 1536, at the peak of Reformation, when also the Bishop and his administration was transferred to the new capital, the town deteriorated rapidly, the decline reinforced by plague epidemics, Dano-Swedish Wars in 1658-60 and later, in the 1730s,  series of severe fires. By the mid-18th century Rosklide could count only 1500 inhabitants. As a part of reconstruction programme the royal palace was built between 1733-36. The palace served as headquarters for the Duke of Wellington during the siege of Copenhagen in 1807. 6,000 British soldiers were then deployed in town.

To Nordic people, Roskilde is best remembered as a place when peace treaties between Denmark and Sweden were signed. The first one, in 1568, very unfavourable for Sweden, was soon rejected. 90 years later, in1658, as a result of another peace agreement, Denmark lost to Sweden significant part of the kingdom.

In 1847 a railway connection, the first in Denmark, was established between Roskilde and Copenhagen. The Italian-inspired station building has been preserved until today, being the oldest one of its kind in Denmark. The railway infused new life into the town. Roskilde became an important traffic junction in Zealand and a commercial centre. Today it is also a centre of education and research as well as trade and, of course, tourism.