Editing Middelfart (section)

==History==
It is not known when the town was established but it certainly owes its existence to its location at the narrowest point across the [[Little Belt]]. The town was granted its first privileges at the end of the 13th century at a time when fishing played an important role in addition to its ferry link to [[Snoghøj]] in Jutland. From the [[Middle Ages]] the town appears to have specialized in catching [[harbour porpoise]]s. In the 16th century cattle export was also significant.<ref name=dcfb/>

[[File:Den_Gamle_Lillebæltsbro.JPG|thumb|left|The [[Old Little Belt Bridge]] just northwest of Middelfart]]
After the [[Dano-Swedish War (1657–58)|Swedish Wars]] in the 17th century the town suffered from losing its foreign export privileges and from competition from [[Fredericia]] on the other side of the belt, which not only had a ferry link to [[Strib]] but levied customs duties on traffic through the Little Belt. In the 18th century income from porpoise catches diminished but in the 19th century, with the establishment of its own harbour in 1836, conditions improved thanks in particular to the growing trade in agricultural products from the surrounding areas. From the mid-19th century small industries started to develop, especially the iron foundry. The [[Funen Main Line|rail link between Middelfart and Nyborg]] opened in 1865, bringing added prosperity despite the fact that it connected with the ferry from Strib rather than the one from Middelfart.<ref name=dcfb/>

By the beginning of the 20th century the iron foundry, with about a hundred workers, was the town's main industry. After the first [[Old Little Belt Bridge|Little Belt Bridge]] was completed in 1935 Middelfart became an important hub for traffic between Jutland and Funen. The population grew from 2,345 in 1880 to 11,056 in 1950 but in the second half of the 20th century the rate of growth declined. In 1970 a motorway bridge to Jutland was opened and in 2007 Middelfart became the seat of an expanded municipality, which included the former communes of [[Ejby Municipality|Ejby]] and [[Nørre Aaby Municipality|Nørre Aaby]].<ref name=dcfb/>