Skærbæk

Skærbæk (German: "Scherrebek") is a town and a former municipality (Danish, "kommune") on the coast of Tønder municipality in Region Syddanmark on the Jutland peninsula in south Denmark. The former Skærbæk municipality covered an area of 360 km², and had a total population of 7,294 (2005).

The municipaliy included the island of Rømø, the southernmost of Denmark's part of the North Frisian Islands. The island, which lies in the Wadden Sea ca. 6.5 km from the mainland, is a popular beach area in the summer, and is linked to the mainland by a road— "Rømøvej"— running across a causeway. There is ferry service from the harbour on Rømø to another popular summer island, the German island of Sylt, less than 4 km south of Rømø.

The municipality was created in 1970 as the result of a "kommunalreform" ("Municipality Reform") that merged a number of existing parishes:
* Brøns Parish
* Døstrup Parish
* Mjolden Parish
* Rejsby Parish
* Rømø Parish
* Skærbæk Parish
* Vodder Parish

On January 1, 2007 Skærbæk municipality ceased to exist as the result of "Kommunalreformen" ("The Municipality Reform" of 2007). It was merged with Bredebro, Højer, Løgumkloster, Nørre-Rangstrup, and Tønder municipalities to form the new Tønder municipality. This created a municipality with an area of 1,352 km² and a total population of 42,645 (2005).

External links

* [http://www.toender.dk Tønder municipality's official website (Danish only)]

References

* Municipal statistics: [http://www2.netborger.dk/Kommunefakta/ NetBorger Kommunefakta] , delivered from [http://www.kmd.dk/ KMD aka Kommunedata (Municipal Data)]
* Municipal mergers and neighbors: [http://kommune.eniro.dk/region/media/nyekommuner.shtml Eniro new municipalities map]