Esbjerg's harbor, on the west coast of Denmark, with its easy accessibility to the North Sea, is a perfect shipping point for large agricultural exports to Great Britain, making it Denmark's largest fishing port. In recent years the oil and natural gas deposits in the North Sea have made Esbjerg the country's oil city. Many ships here are used as supply vessels for Danish oil rigs. Esbjerg is laid out with straight, wide streets, square town sections, and a large town square. There's a long pedestrian street, plus many specialty shops and large shopping centers. Within the town are parks and lakes with wooded areas. Denmark's youngest major city can also be used as a base for exploring one of the country's prime holiday areas, a landscape of beaches, nature experiences, medieval towns, and amusement parks. After Denmark lost Schleswig-Holstein to Germany in 1864, it needed an export harbor for shipping grain to Britain. In what had previously been farmland, the town at Esbjerg was founded in 1868, with the port opening in 1874. It was granted its city charter in 1898. The population has steadily grown to 82,000, making Esbjerg the fifth largest city of Denmark. The down side here is that since the city is relatively new, it doesn't have the old-time historic core that attracts visitors to cities such as Ribe . However, in spite of that, there is much here to amuse.