Archaeological excavations show that Bornholm was inhabited since prehistoric times - stones used for striking fire dating back to 7500-5500 BC were found on the eastern coast. People living on Bornholm during the Bronze Age left many more signs behind them. Archaeologists discovered numerous barrows dating to the 13^th -11^th century BC and rock engravings dating to the 10^th century BC.

In the 10^th and 11^th century AD Vikings established their bases on the island. Danish Vikings are said to have been the most venturesome, brave and cruel among Scandinavian tribes. While they were ruling Bornholm it became one of the most important points of the Baltic trade route. The Middle Ages left behind many remarkable monuments such as Hammershus castle, Lilleborg and Gamleborg ruins and of course four round churches built between 1150 and 1200 AD. These centuries are well remembered also because of about forty stones with runic inscriptions on them. They mostly have religious contents and can be found all over the island.

In the 14^th and 15^th century AD Bornholm was under German rule, then the Swedish controlled the island until 1660 when it came back to the Danish Kingdom. During Napoleonic wars there was a stronghold of the Royal Navy on Christianso.

In 1940 Germans invaded Bornholm and established one of their garrisons there. They occupied the island till the end of the war. In 1945, after several air raids that destroyed Rnne and Nex, the Russian army defeated Germans and occupied Bornholm for a short time - until 1946. Now it is the most eastern and the smallest county of Denmark.

Bornholm is only 100 km away from Poland. The island is situated almost in the centre of the Baltic Sea at 15 degrees east and 55 degrees north. It covers about 587 square kilometres and has 141 kilometre-long coastline. The distance between the most standing out capes amounts to 40 km.

Unlike the rest of Denmark it has very varied configuration. The middle and north part are highest with dominant Rytterkngten mountain (163 metres over sea level) - the third highest in the country. The south is peaceful and flat. The coastline is very similar - steep, rocky in the north and sandy, even in the south. All rivers and streams are very short. Some of them are even seasonal as well as the Dondale highest waterfall - they appear only after rainfalls. There are few lakes on Bornholm - the biggest is Hammers (650 m long, 150 m wide and 13 m deep).

Picture 1.The map of Bornholm (compiled by Destination Bornholm ApS)

Bornholm has a special climate - different from the rest of Denmark. It has more hours of sunshine and less rainfall. Summer starts three weeks later - in July, which is the hottest month with an average temperature of 17C - and lasts longer, even till September which prolongs tourist season.

The Baltic Sea gets hot during summer days and becomes a holder of warmth, which makes autumn not only sunny but warm as well. Winter is very mild on Bornholm in comparison with the Scandinavian region. Frost and snow appear in January and last until March. As opposed to other seaside areas the island has little rainfall - about 550 mm a year. It is balanced by the very high humidity - about 80-90 %. Strong winds, especially from the west, are typical for Bornholm. They make the air very clear, without any dimness or pollution, and give the sky incredible colour - deep, royal blue.

Picture 2. Average sunshine and precipitation (compiled by Destination Bornholm ApS)

Due to the isolation in the past, when it was difficult to contact the rest of the world, a small community of Bornhomere (only 45.000 inhabitants) achieved a very high cultural level. It is really amazing that so many cultural objects are available on the island of twenty by thirty kilometres. As mentioned above, there are numerous historical monuments there. Prehistoric ones are passage graves, stone ships, rock engravings, rune stones and monoliths, the Middle Ages left behind round churches, the Lilleborg and Gamleborg ruins, and the Hammershus castle.

Besides monuments mentioned above there are fourteen museums on the island which enable visitors to experience different spheres of ancient life. Melstedgard Landbrugsmuseet in Gudhjem shows how the life was going on in a typical farm before mechanisation. Silderogerierne Museum in Hasle is an old smokehouse where herrings are smoked like in the past. Moselkken Quarry Museum allows tourists to try stone cutting. Hjorths Fabrik in Rnne is the working ceramics museum that displays development of the stoneware and ceramics in the past 300 years. Nexo Museum is dedicated to fishing and its importance for the economy of Bornholm. The biggest of them - Bornholms Museum in Ronne - has a great archaeological collection of rare gold figures, sets of toys and also grandmother and grandfather clocks called bornholmeruhre. Bornholms Kunstmuseum treasures paintings of the Bornholmermalere (painters of Bornholm) and a large collection of applied art.

On the island there live about 100 artists and craftsworkers. Their workshops or shops serve also as small galleries where you can admire today's art.

Bornholm is the smallest county of Denmark, divided into five municipalities: Ronne - the main town and the seat of county authorities, Allinge-Gudhjem, Hasle, Nexo, and kirkeby - municipal centres. The county council is a regional authority distributing its tasks to the committees of: Economy, Technical Services and Environment, Culture and Social Services, Health Services and Development. The county has prepared a regional development plan for the future. The three main sections of the plan are:

• summary of previous development
• objectives for the future
• guidelines for administration and planning.

A very important objective in this plan is that despite the necessity of serving commercial interests of agriculture, forestry and extracting industries by the open countryside, at the same time the inherent value of the landscape must be protected for the enjoyment of tourists and permanent residents. Therefore, every bit of the countryside is classified as farmland, farmland with unique wildlife areas or unique landscape areas.

For the economy of Bornholm, the most important are agriculture, fishing industry, extraction of raw materials, and tourism. The objectives of the economic policy are as follows: flexible administration of any economic matters, full co-ordination in promoting the economy of the island and development of niche productions. In 1993 the Danish government enacted Bornhlmerpakke which is to support initiatives that can transform Bornholm into self-sufficient community. Efforts focused mainly on the development of private enterprise, tourism, agriculture and increasing contacts in the Baltic Sea region.

The greatest hopes of the Bornholm inhabitants are definitely connected with the youngest branch of the economy - tourism. Tourist infrastructure has developed a lot in the recent years. There has been created a network of perfectly equipped camp-sites, hostels, pensions and hotels; there have been traced foot and bike paths; tourist attractions have been exposed. Tourism seems to produce good prospects for the future economy of Bornholm.

In the 80's the county council created The Green Island Project, the main objective of which is to improve environmental conditions based on understanding and co-operating with the business and industry community, including agriculture.

The county of Bornholm also pays special attention to energy supplies. The main goal is to achieve environmental benefits as well as sensible utilisation of waste products, independence in fuel supplies and promoting local employment. The results are impressive: forty nine windmills, many solar heating systems, a recycling centre, increasing awareness of environmental and energy issues.

All these ventures are extremely important not only for the residents of the island but for also for tourists visiting it and tourism itself - clean environment is one of the most inviting tourist attractions.