Gilleleje

Gilleleje
Town
Boats in the Gilleleje inner harbour
Gilleleje Location in Denmark
Coordinates: 56°07′N 12°19′E / 56.117°N 12.317°E / 56.117; 12.317
Country	Denmark
Region	Capital (Hovedstaden)
Municipality	Gribskov
Population (2015)
• Total	6,494
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)

Gilleleje is one of the main towns of the Gribskov municipality in Region Hovedstaden in Denmark. The town is at the northernmost point of Sjælland in Denmark. As of 1 January 2015, it has a population of 6,494.

The name, pronounced [ɡ̊ilˈlɑɪ̯], is made up from the combination of the obsolete Danish word gil, which is a or , and leje, which is a place where fishermen come in specific seasons to fish. It was probably concatenated from Gilbjerg Leje, where Gilbjerg ("cleftmountain") is a rather dramatic name for a rather mundane point just west of town limits. The towns ending in -leje are often from the 16th century, when the fishermen actually settled and regular townships appeared. Compare with the Swedish ending läge.

The earliest confirmed permanent residence in Gyldeleye (earlier spelling) is in the early 16th century. An excavation, done in 1979 by the city museum, revealed a lot from a house under the layers of sand. The house had most likely been built shortly after 1536, as a coin was found, dated 1534-36. There were also found ceramics reminiscent of other finds, so the archeologists assumed that the culture layer was from the late 15th century. Additionally, the house was found on the address Fabersvej 10 which is not the closest to the beach, and the habit was to build from the beach and inwards.

At around this time, it is also known that the town had enough financial means to build a church and hire a priest. This required considerable funds, and the general consensus, then, is that the town went from seasonal fishing to year round fishing, and the fishermen settled down in the years surrounding 1500. Town hall has established 1488 as the "official" founding year to make celebrating easier. The church was inaugurated in 1538 by the newly ordained priest Hans Lauridtzen.

In 1588, the vassal of Kronborg made a list of the taxes that the fishermen should pay. This was one or a half barrel of cod. From this list, we can see who the earliest citizens were. There are about 70 names (a name is analogous to a house - there were probably about 500 citizens), with the surnames Lauritsen, Rasmussen, Jensen and Skomager being the most common. Note that patronymic surnames were the norm then, but from this, it gives an impression of what first names were in vogue among the citizens.