Editing Skagen (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Skagens tilsandede kirke.jpg|thumb|right|260px|The sand-engulfed Buried Church (''tilsandede kirke'') at Skagen]]
Skagen was mentioned as far back as the first century AD by [[Pliny the Elder]]:
:"Promenturium Cimbrorum excurrens in maria longe paeninsulam efficit quae Tastris appellatur" (Book IV, 97)
:"The promontory of the Cimbri running far out into the seas makes a peninsula, which is called Tastris."

This is the only time the name Tastris is mentioned but Skagen itself, first documented as ''Skaffuen'' in 1284, simply means narrow, high point of land<ref>[http://www.middelalderinfo.dk/bynavne.php Flemming Elimar Jensen, "Hvad betyder bynavnene & landsdels navne?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215091902/http://www.middelalderinfo.dk/bynavne.php |date=15 February 2015 }}, MiddelalderInfo. {{in lang|da}} Retrieved 10 October 2013.</ref><ref name=dsd/>

The first building in the area, dating from the 12th century, was in [[Højen]] on the west side of the peninsula. It belonged to Tronder, a shepherd who also became Skagen's first fisherman. Around 1340, Vesterby, on the east coast (to the south west of today's harbour), developed into the main village. Further to the south west, [[The Sand-Covered Church|St Lawrence's Church]] was built at the end of the 14th century. In 1413, [[Erik of Pommern]] granted Skagen the status of [[market town]] with the result that for a time it became [[Vendsyssel]]'s largest community with up to 2,000 inhabitants.<ref name=slf>[http://www.skagenlokal.dk/tidstavle.html "Tidstavle"], Skagen Lokalhistoriske Forening. {{in lang|da}} Retrieved 10 October 2013.</ref>

In 1549, a grammar school was opened (closing again in 1739) and, in 1561, Skagen's first lighthouse was constructed. In 1568, some 350 fishing boats and merchant ships were wrecked off the coast of Skagen.<ref name=slf/> In the 1590s, successive storms led not only to numerous drownings but to flooding, destroying many of the houses. In 1591, 22 died in a flood and in 1593, 14 houses were washed away.<ref name=slf/> In 1595, 25 farms in the area were covered in drifting sand.<ref name=slf/> As a result, new housing was built in Østerby to the north east, away from the rapidly accumulating sand.