In 2023, the Viking ring fortress at the heart of Odense “The Nun Hill” (Nonnebakken), was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List alongside four other Danish ring fortresses. Built around 980 AD during the reign of Harald Bluetooth, the fortress formed part of a network that played an important role in the consolidation of the Danish kingdom. Unlike the other ring fortresses, The Nun Hill is embedded within a living city, where traces of the monument remain largely hidden beneath streets, schools, gardens, and everyday urban life.
The Nun Hill project transforms this invisible heritage into a tangible presence within the city. Through a series of carefully placed landscape interventions, the original geometry and scale of the fortress are reintroduced as a new storytelling layer woven into the urban structures of the city. The intervention enables residents and visitors alike to understand the extraordinary scale, form, and location of the fortress, while strengthening awareness of a site whose historical significance now holds global recognition.
The intervention traces the outer boundary of the fortress, making its monumental 180-metre diameter legible once again. A large quarter-circle emerges at the corner of The Nun Hill and Hunderupvej, revealing the curvature of the original rampart within the public realm. Elsewhere, fragments of the circle appear throughout the site, in the pavement along Allégade, at the intersection with Hunderupvej, and within the grounds of Giersings Realskole, creating a dispersed and connected reading of the fortress footprint.
Corten steel elements are integrated into the existing landscape to mark the line of the former embankment. At Giersings Realskole, a new corten curb replaces an earlier cobblestone marker, establishing a clear and durable reference to the original fortification while opening opportunities for interpretation and learning. Along Allégade and at key intersections, the circular imprint reappears as a subtle yet distinctive insertion within the existing paving, allowing visitors to experience the fortress through movement and discovery.
