ESBJERG  , a seaport of

Denmark in the amt (county) of Ribe, 18 m. from the German frontier on the west coast of Jutland . It has railway communication with the east and north of Jutland, and with Germany . It was granted municipal rights in 1900, having grown with astonishing rapidity from 13 inhabitants in 1868 to 13,355 in 1901 . This growth it owes to the construction of a large harbour in ,868–1888 . It is the principal outlet westward for S . Jutland; exports pork and meat, butter, eggs, fish, cattle and sheep, skins, lard and agricultural seeds, and has regular communication with Harwich and Grimsby in England . Three miles S.E. is Nordby on the island of Fano, the northern-most of the North Frisian chain . It is an arid bank of heathland and dunes, but both Nordby and Sonderho in the south are frequented as seaside resorts . The former has a school of navigation . The fisheries are valuable .