Christiansfeld is a town designed on a drawing board, and it still looks like it. It was founded in 1773 by the Moravian Church, the Brethren, a Protestant community from Bohemia and Saxony that had its centre at Herrnhut, and it was laid out on a strict grid around a central square, with a church at its heart. The houses are built of yellow brick, with red tile roofs, and they stand in neat rows with a gentle uniformity that has survived two and a half centuries. In 2015 the town was added to the World Heritage list.
The Moravians lived communally, with separate houses for single men, single women and widows, and with a common cemetery known as God's Acre, where all graves are marked with identical flat stones, to show that everyone is equal in death. The cemetery is a quiet, green place, with lawns and lime trees, and a walk through it is a calm experience. The town was also a place of craft and trade, and the Moravians' reputation for fair dealing brought customers from across Denmark.
The best-known product is the Christiansfeld honey cake, a spiced, flat biscuit that is still made in the town's bakery and sold in a shop that retains an old-fashioned feel. It is the right kind of snack for a rider, as it keeps well in a tank bag, and the smell of baking is a good guide when you arrive.
As a place to ride, southern Jutland is gentle. Roads run through rolling farmland, past red-brick farms and small woods, with long views and easy bends, and the surface is excellent. The Little Belt, the strait between Jutland and Funen, lies to the east, and the Kolding fjord is nearby. Wind can be strong, and the weather changes quickly, but the open country has a peaceful character.
Christiansfeld has about two and a half thousand people, with a petrol station, a supermarket and a few cafés, and Kolding, a larger town a short ride north, has more choice. The ride pairs the town with Nonnebakken in Odense, a Viking-age ring fortress on the island of Funen. Park near the square and walk, because the grid is compact and the old streets are best seen on foot.