Stenbjerg

Artists in Stenbjerg

As known from Skagen in particular, many artists have been attracted by the special light from the sea and the vast sky at the coast. This is also the case in Thy. The well known Skagen painters P.S. Krøyer and his wife Marie were some of the first established artists to discover Stenbjerg and its beautiful vistas. In August 1889, they came to Stenbjerg on their way back from their honeymoon in Paris. They stayed at Stenbjerg Kro inn, and over the next couple of months they lived and worked here. P.S. Krøyer painted several paintings of his wife and large paintings of the dune heath.

The German artist Käte Lassen came to Thy for the first time in 1905 when she was 25 years old and had recently qualified as an artist. The first goal for her stay in Thy was Klitmøller, but from 1924 she returned to Stenbjerg every summer. Here she painted very expressive pictures of the local people. She stayed in a small house which has been preserved, and in which there is a small poster exhibition during the summer.

The painter Jens Søndergaard was born in 1895 and grew up in Hurup in south Thy. Later he moved to Copenhagen, but his subjects came from west Jutland. From 1948, Jens Søndergaard spent the summers in his house between Stenbjerg and Sdr. Vorupør. The house, which is privately owned, is situated on Jens Søndergaards Vej, and can be recognised by the colourful figurehead outside the house. The figure was raised by Jens Søndergaard, who gave it its vivid colours.

Käte Lassens house on Stenbjerg Kirkevej is open during the day from Easter to the autumn holidays.

Inn and church

Stenbjerg Kro inn received its royal license in 1790. The original building has not been preserved, but the inn is still in operation and serves food prepared from local produce from the sea and from the national park. Many of the houses in the village are from the early 1900s. Comprehensive nature conservation strategies at Stenbjerg have had the effect that there are fewer summerhouses in this area than in many other places. In other words, you can get an idea of what the old fishing village looked like, when fishing was still the main industry.

Stenbjerg church was built in 1895. In front of the church is the stone sculpture »Vidner« designed by the artist Erland Knudssøn Madsen in 2007. In the cemetery, there is a monument to the American pilot Bernhard Sabbath whose body was found during the Second World War on the beach in Stenbjerg. The Germans buried him on the beach, but the locals were allowed to move the body to the cemetery in 1944. After the war, he was buried again in the US.

In the dunes at Stenbjerg Kirke Vej there is a German observation bunker from the Second World War. The bunker has information about the war and the Atlantvolden fortress (the Atlantic embankment).