When driving along the south side of Mariager Fjord, don't miss a visit to the charming Dania, which bears witness to the bygone era of old cement workers.
Just before you reach Dania from Fladbjerg, you'll pass Akzo Nobel, Scandinavia's only salt factory. The factory sources its raw materials from a salt deposit at Hvornum, west of Hobro, where the salt is naturally located about 200 meters below the Earth's surface. Through a pipeline, the salt is transported as saltwater to the factory in Dania, where it is processed into, among other things, food and road salt, and then distributed.
Upon entering Dania itself, you'll pass by the "Gule Huse" (Jutland's Nyboder), the employees' residential houses, the old director's villa, and enter the factory area. The restored buildings are now home to many small industries and service-oriented companies.
Dania is an old cement worker's environment. It is no coincidence that Dania and Kongsdal became a center for cement production. Here, raw materials were abundant, and there were ideal transportation facilities through the fjord.
In the hills, there was access to large quantities of Danish chalk, a particularly high-quality limestone.
In combination with the fat clay that could be extracted at Katbjerg Odde and on the fjord bottom in the shallow areas east of Hadsund, Dania was therefore an ideal place for cement production. Danish chalk refers to the chalk layers deposited in Denmark during the Danian era about 60 million years ago. The Danian chalk was formed by the accumulation of shells from animals and plants on the seabed. The Danian chalk is often rich in larger fossils; in addition to bryozoans and corals, sea urchins, brachiopods, and mussels are common. Flint makes up to 20% of the layers. The chalk was used for burnt lime and building stones. From the 19th century, the entire area was grayed out - both workers, vegetation, trees, and houses were enveloped in a cloud of chalk and cement dust. Everywhere, people had to squint their eyes to avoid dust in their eyes.
Dania Today
As perhaps the only "privately owned" village in Denmark with an incredibly beautiful location by Denmark's longest and most beautiful fjord, Dania offers attractions that are rarely heard of, including the very small fjord fishing harbor, Skarodde, in the middle of Dania and Kongsdal. Here, the author Hans Kirk wrote the famous books "The Fishermen" in 1928, which also became a well-known TV series.
At the harbor, you'll find the event venue Orkidee Dania, situated in the most beautiful surroundings with a view of Mariager Fjord. An ideal place for bus companies passing through the Holidayland Mariager Fjord.
Although many of Dania's buildings have been removed, a larger number of production and storage buildings still exist in Dania, which are used by various small industries, among others. The most distinctive building is a 40-meter-high fused concrete silo facility that extends down to the fjord. This silo was formerly owned by FLSmidth but is now owned by the ownership for the rest of the Dania area.
FLSmidth still operates a research facility in Dania with 20 employees. The research facility is named R & D Centre Dania, Denmark - R for research and D for development.
The old cement factory also includes four rows of worker housing, houses for employees, a stately director's villa, and a harbor facility. The cement factories have also left their clear marks on the landscape in the form of large chalk quarries with steep slopes.
The steep cliffs of the chalk quarries are very special, and today, the chalk quarry lies like a mighty scar in the landscape. The steep cliffs also have a very unique appearance and have thus served as a backdrop for several film recordings.
