Explore Nexø
Entrepreneurship, heritage and harbour life
Nexø, the harbour town reinventing itself
Nexø is Bornholm’s second-largest town and home to Bornholm’s largest old fishing harbour. But behind the raw quaysides and the town’s historic sandstone plinths, a new, creative heart is beating. In the old harbour quarters and colourful Swedish houses, you will find a town alive with entrepreneurship, international craft and informal food experiences.
Here, the maritime rawness around Nexø havn meets a warm and informal atmosphere in Nexø town. At the same time, the town’s cultural heritage lives on in new forms, from the sandstone in the streets to the story of Martin Andersen Nexø, who grew up here.
Nexø invites you to step right into the workshops, come close to the harbour and feel a town in motion.
The sandstone from Frederiks Stenbrud
Nexø has its own stone in the townscape. The reddish Nexø sandstone was quarried north of the town at Frederiks Stenbrud, which was established in 1754 during the reign of King Frederik V. The stone was used for important buildings in Nexø and elsewhere in Denmark, and it still helps give the town its distinctive architectural tone. Look for the sandstone in masonry, details and older buildings as you walk through town.
A good place to notice this history is around Stenbrudssøen and Stenbrudsgården north of Nexø. Stenbrudsgården was built in 1759 and is now listed. Here, the connection between the town’s architecture, landscape and quarrying history becomes especially clear.
A harbour in transition
The heart of Nexø town still beats strongly at the harbour. Where large fishing cutters once landed the catch of the day, you will now find a lively, raw setting in the historic harbour buildings. Some of the island’s entrepreneurs are based here, and you can feel the informal, warm atmosphere in the workshops, shops and small galleries.
Nexø havn also has a more playful and everyday harbour life. Here you can sit down with a coffee, have an ice cream, have lunch, play a round of minigolf or visit the play centre, while the harbour surrounds you with quaysides, warehouses and traces of the old fishing days.
It is this very mix that makes the place special. The harbour has not been polished clean of its history. It still has its raw edge, but today it is also a place where people meet, work, create and pause close to the sea, which has always been a lifeline for the town.
Crafts, glass and ceramics in Nexø town
Nexø also has a strong connection to craft. The town is home to the Royal Danish Academy’s Crafts in Glass and Ceramics programme, which helps make Nexø a special place for materials, form and craftsmanship.
It gives Nexø a creative environment that fits well with the town’s history as a working town. Here, craft is not only about the finished expression, but also about the process, the materials and what is created by hand.
Together with the town’s workshops, exhibitions and local initiatives, the glass and ceramics scene helps add a contemporary layer to the harbour, the sandstone and the old trades. The town continues to build on its roots.
Step inside the home of a literary giant
The town’s history is also inseparably linked to the writer Martin Andersen Nexø, who took his surname from the town of his childhood. It was here, in modest circumstances, that the foundation was laid for the masterpiece about Pelle the Conqueror. In the writer’s original childhood home, now preserved as memorial rooms, you can see photographs, paintings and personal objects that bring you close to 19th-century working life.
Read moreOn the trail with Pelle the Conqueror
If you want to take the stories of Martin Andersen Nexø out into the open air, you can follow the 6.6-kilometre poet’s trail. Here, local history and old anecdotes unfold as audio stories in the landscape that shaped the writer’s imagination.
The stories are read by Pelle Hvenegaard, who played Pelle as a child in Pelle the Conqueror.
Nexø is for the curious
Nexø has several experiences worth making the trip for. At Nexø Museum, you can get closer to the town’s history, from sandstone quarrying and seafaring to the occupation, the bombings and the reconstruction.
Close to the harbour, you will also find De Bornholmske Jernbaner, where old carriages, photographs and objects tell the story of the days when trains ran on Bornholm. It is a fine reminder that Nexø was not only connected to the sea, but also to the rest of the island by rail.
At the same time, Nexø and the area around the town offer several easy-going experiences for families, curious children and anyone who wants to combine town history with play, green pauses and time together. It makes the town easy to enjoy, whether you come for a short visit or a full day.
Nexø’s food scene
Nexø has an informal food scene that suits the town well. It is not about grand gestures, but about places where you can sit down, pick up something good to eat and feel the harbour, the town and everyday life around you.
On and around Nexø havn, you will find coffee, ice cream, lunch spots and small pauses close to the water. The smokehouse links back to the old fishing harbour, while cafés and new places to eat bring a more contemporary feel to everyday life at the harbour.
It is exactly this mix that suits Nexø. The taste of smoke, a cup of coffee by the quay, an ice cream on the way through town or a meal without too much fuss. Here, food becomes part of the experience of a harbour that does not stand still, but finds new ways to bring people together.
Accommodation in Nexø
If you feel like staying a little longer, you will find several ways to stay in and around Nexø. You can stay in a holiday house or apartment, find a room at a smaller place to stay or choose a simple and practical base close to town. You can also stay by the harbour or a little outside the centre, depending on whether you want to be close to town life, the water or the quieter surroundings around Nexø. However you choose to stay, you are close to the harbour, the places to eat, the museums and the small experiences that make Nexø more than a stop along the way.
Read moreWhen Nexø becomes a Christmas town
In November and December, Nexø takes on a special winter glow. The old fishing town becomes a Christmas town with lights in the streets, decorated wooden stalls by the harbour and local scents from Bornholm delicacies, crafts and warm drinks.
In the town centre and by the harbour, Christmas spreads between small shops, stalls, fir greenery, gløgg and winter atmosphere. Here, the raw edges of the harbour town meet the soft calm that settles in when Nexø gathers around Bornholms Julemarked.
Bornholms Julemarked takes place Friday to Sunday during the Advent weekends.
From raw quayside to wild nature and white sand
Once you have explored the town’s streets, workshops and historic museums, you can head just a little beyond the town limits, where the Nexø area quickly changes character and offers striking contrasts. Only a short bike ride to the south, the landscape flattens out completely and becomes Balka Strand. The beach is known for its chalk-white, fine sand and the very shallow, calm water, where you can feel sand between your toes and let your shoulders drop.
If you head northwest instead, Paradisbakkerne rises up. The hilly rift-valley landscape invites you to walk in deep silence beneath the tree crowns, while the rock faces remind you of Bornholm’s raw ancient force. Nexø is the perfect starting point for experiencing the contrast between informal, creative town life and some of the island’s wildest nature.
Take your time in Nexø
Nexø unfolds best when you are not only heading for one place. Walk from the harbour into town, notice the sandstone, stop by the museums and let the route continue towards workshops, green pauses or a cup of coffee by the water.
Here, it is the layers that make the experience special. The old and the new. The raw and the playful. The town that still carries its history, but keeps finding new ways to use it.
Sjølla, Nexø’s “secret” bathing spot
“Sjølla” is Bornholm dialect and means “to rinse off”. That was exactly what the area’s quarry workers did here after a long day’s work in the old days, and the people of Nexø still do the same today.
Sjølla and Ny Sjølla are the town’s overlooked bathing oases. Here, the rocks form natural bowls in the coastline, sheltering them from the waves of the Baltic Sea and creating small, raw pools. At Ny Sjølla, you will find a small bathing ladder that makes it easy to get into the clear water. It is the perfect setting for a calm, authentic bathing experience close to the rocks.