Ullerslev is a small town between Nyborg and Odense, and it is very easy to cross without realising that its present shape is largely the result of two completely different periods of development.
The original village was farther north, along the old main road between Odense and Nyborg. Ullerslev is first mentioned in 1320 as Ulwersleff, and for centuries it remained essentially a rural settlement surrounded by farmland. Its old church still marks that earlier centre of the village.
Ullerslev Church dates from the early Middle Ages. The chancel and nave are Romanesque and date from around 1200, while later Gothic additions changed the building considerably. Inside are medieval wall paintings, including a particularly interesting group dated to 1485. Some are signed by Christian Petersen and Peter Lauritsen, helping historians identify the artists behind a wider group of medieval Danish church paintings.
The town changed much more dramatically when the railway across Funen arrived. Ullerslev station opened in 1865, but it was built some distance south of the old village. A second settlement therefore began growing around the railway rather than around the church.
The railway brought an inn, shops and businesses, followed by a dairy, schools, an electricity works and other services. After the Second World War the station district expanded quickly, and by the end of the 1960s it had almost joined the original village. Modern Ullerslev is therefore effectively the result of these two settlements growing together.
The station itself eventually disappeared from the timetable, but the railway still cuts through the town. That makes Ullerslev an interesting example of the many Danish communities whose development was completely altered by the nineteenth-century railway network.
There is also an unexpectedly long industrial history for such a small place. One building on Hindemaevej was first used for trade, then became a dairy and later, in 1934, Ullerslev Bryggeri. The brewery produced light and dark Danish hvidtøl until 1965, including beer delivered locally in large five-litre bottles.
Ullerslev also spent several decades as an administrative centre. A municipality carrying its name was created in 1970 from Ullerslev and neighbouring areas. It survived until the Danish municipal reform of 2007, when Ullerslev became part of the larger Nyborg Municipality.
There is not the same concentration of major sights here as in Nyborg. Ullerslev is much more of an ordinary small Funen town, and that is really what distinguishes it on this part of the route. Behind the modern residential streets is an old roadside village, a medieval church, a railway town and the remains of a local industrial history that are not particularly obvious when simply driving through.
For this journey, Ullerslev fits better as a short stop between the larger towns of eastern Funen than as a destination requiring a full day. Its interest is mostly in understanding how the town developed rather than in working through a list of attractions.