Penitentiary in Kølsen

North of Kølsen, facing the river valley and the fjord, in the early 1900s there was a hill, Klinkhøj, which mainly consisted of marl. Marl was attractive in Jutland as it was used as fertilizer for the poor heathland.

Alhedens Marlforsyning was responsible for the marl mining, and in this connection the company borrowed 20 convicts from Horsens to carry out the very hard work, and since then the workforce has been developed with a further 10 convicts. A branch of Horsens Tugthus was therefore built in Kølsen.

The work consisted of breaking the marl by hand. Every day, 20 railroad cars were loaded with 10 tons each. During the 28 years that the marl pit existed, 1,2 million tons of marl were manually loaded. The tomb closed in 1934. In this way, the hill Klinthøj was spread out over the Jutland heath. Today, only the prison guard's house remains and a piece of flat land. 

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