Wednesday 7 July 2010

War and Peace (Fredericia, Denmark 1849)



Camouflaged as a blue Police telephone box SARDIS (Scale And Relative Dimension In Style) is able to travel through both time, space, scale and style. Polly Line didn't know all this, so after the weekend with Dr Whatson in Paris in spring, she is surprised to be taken back in time. According to Dr Whatson it's spring 1849, they are in Fredericia, a fortified town from the 17th century in Jylland (Jutland) in Denmark, and the city's almost empty since the inhabitants have been evacuated across the Belt to the island of Fyn (Funen) to avoid the siege.






61 000 soldiers, rebels from the Danish-ruled duchy of Schleswig-Holstein supported by Prussians had invaded the south of Denmark. The Danes were outnumbered, and the troops located there withdrew to northern Jylland. As they withdrew, they left 7000 men to garrison the town, along with a reserve on Fyn.






Polly Line walking peacefully around in the deserted town with dr Whatson, unaware that the final battle is to be on July the 6th.









The harbour with the citadel.



The Trinity church



Major-general Olaf Rye who was born in Bø in Telemark, Norway and had had his military upbringing in Polly Line's hometown Skien, was to become the great Danish hero of this war. First he tricked a large part of the enemy into following them up north to the peninsula of Helgenæs, and from there had his soldiers brought back to Fredericia by boat where he and his brigade was largely responsible for winning the battle and end the war this day. Olaf Rye himself died in the battle and didn't live to see their victory. But the victory is still celebrated in Fredericia and for a long time after his death, when Danish soldiers died in battle they were said to join Rye's Brigade.





Statue of Olaf Rye in today's Fredericia with Bendik standing watch.



The city's main entrance gate, still looking like this today.



Polly Line and Dr Whatson taking a last look over the city.


Credits: The town is "den historiske Miniby" of Fredericia, in 1:10th scale. Started as a jobproject for unemployed in 1983, now built and maintained by a group of retired volunteers.
Miss Polly Lines wardrobe is as usual provided by Cocco.

10 comments:

Sans! said...

Helene, I was wondering how in the world you manage to convince the museum to take these wonderful photos with Polly Line and Dr Whatson :). So what's a jobproject? It sounds so interesting :) and something maybe I want to start here.

I have enjoyed this trip tremendously. Thank you :):).

My Realitty said...

Wow, just great pictures! The history is wonderful too. Thank you for this time travel. CM

Glenda said...

I love this SARDIS!!
And it has taken a fabulous tour - thankyou!!

Pubdoll said...

Thanks Sans, glad you liked it!
I just asked if I was allowed to take pictures and I was also careful not to touch the houses, just tidied away some weed here and there :-) The ones working there were such sweet old men.
When I wrote jobproject I was quite tired after reading me up on the war history, what I meant was it was a project to give work for unemployed persons.

Pubdoll said...

Pubdoll said...
Thanks Carol. When I studied the history of the 3 year war and wrote the post, I thought of you and your wonderful little history lessons!
I have a great family, I didn't know about this miniature town until we were almost in the 1:1 town, and Trond read about it in some tourist brochure. I hadn't brought the Tardis/Sardis nor the dolls. But Trond and the kids demanded that we turned around and went back to our rented house to fetch them.

Pubdoll said...

Thanks Glenda, since you're a Dr Who lover too, I'm even more happy you like my SARDIS/Dr Whatson stories.

I just found out, that when the human doctor and Rose was left in the alternative universe they got a bit of TARDIS, so they could grow their own one to travel around in. It was cut from the series, but in one of the DVD boxes sold, the clip is in. I was glad to hear that, mainly for Rose and the human doctors sake but also a little bit because I thought it fit nicely in with the SARDIS stories from my miniworld :-)
(Hmm, this sounds like ramblings from a mad woman, perhaps I need a shrink)

Sans! said...

Gotcha Helene :).

And no, you don't sound like a rambling mad woman, you sound exactly like one of us :). And we all want a "shrink" sometime, only because we can be small enough to fit into our dollhouses or to travel in envelopes to visit others. :)

Pubdoll said...

Ha, ha, Sans, so true :-)

Rebecca said...

Dear Helene, I saw these posts before I went away, but didn't manage to comment. I love them - the history is fascinating, and the photos are fantastic! Dr Whatson is definitely showing some different characteristics from his double Dr Who - Dr Who would have been in the middle of the siege, rather than the point between the evacuation and the attack!
It's really lovely too to read of how you found out about this, and how your lovely husband and children insisted on going back for the dolls! They contribute to your blog in so many wonderful ways, it's great to know of that :-)
And I didn't know the bit about the piece of Tardis left with Rose in the other world. I'm pretty sure my sister has the DVD boxset, so I must ask her to show it to me sometime. Now I'm trying to remember how Rose and Micky and the others got back to this world in the final attack in the David Tennant series - again, must ask my sister!
Thanks again for a wonderful story for miniature and Dr Who lovers :-)

Pubdoll said...

Thank you Rebecca, I have really missed your thorough doctor Who/Whatson comments :-)
It was such a nice surprise to stumble across this lovely miniature town, although it was in a slightly larger scale. And tht
at it even was a miniature town with a history related to a man from our home town! And yes, I have a lovely and very supportive family!

And your right, the two doctors are a bit different (in more ways than this one) but if I had managed to get enough tiny soldiers I would have loved them to stay for the battle as well :-)

So great I could give you some unknown iformation of the "real doctor!. If your sister don't have the extended clip you can find it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8jIuf4DYG8

I love where Rose's mother says "Back and beyond, bloody Norway!" :-)
And I think Rose and Mickey were able to cross over because the walls between the different universes were breaking down because of the work of the Daleks and their leader; the ending of reality itself. Rose and Mickey's universe was a bit ahead of ours, enabling them to cross over. (For a physiscist, I'm sure this is complete nonsense :-)