Randers is a city in Randers municipality (Aarhus County, Region Midtjylland) on the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. It is Denmark's 6th largest city with a population of 55,739 (2004). It is the main town of the municipality and the site of its municipal council . Randers municipality has 94,221 inhabitants (2009).
The municipality is also a part of the East Jutland metropolitan area with 1,2 mio inhabitants. .
Randers is Denmark's only natural river harbour, and is situated on the banks of the River Guden (Gudenå), about 6 miles (10 km) above its mouth in Randers Fjord, and 111 miles (179 km) west-northwest of Copenhagen. This location has had great significance for the town as a sea merchant area. Barges on the Guden River and the Northern River (Nørreå) transported goods into Randers from Silkeborg and Viborg for export, and in return came imported items.
A vast agricultural area and good transportation possibilities both by land and water, all helped to make Randers a dynamic center for trade and commerce. Known for the many access roads leading into the city, it has engendered the popular saying, "Where the waterway meets the 13 highways" ("Hvor søvejen møder de 13 landeveje").
Randers is referred to as Crown Jutland (Kronjylland) and the people as Crown Jutlanders (Kronjyde), probably due to the big Crown estates, i.e. the estates owned by the Crown, the King. The term Kronjyde was first used by Danish poets around 1750. Both Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872) and Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), and especially Nobel Prize laureate Henrik Pontoppidan (1857-1943), who was born in Randers, used the term.
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