Odense TV 2, fully owned by the state since 2003, is based in Odense. The station began broadcasting on 1 October 1988 as a privately owned company, thereby ending the television monopoly previously exercised by the Danmarks Radio (DR). Since 2007, TV 2 has had about 1,000 employees. Now operating six channels, TV 2 now broadcasts over 40,000 hours of television programmes per year. Odense has over 20 twin cities. For a full list of twin cities, see Odense Municipality. Several of them are stated below: Bibliography Odense Odense () is the third-largest city in Denmark. It has a population of
Odense Palace Odense Palace Odense Palace () in the city of Odense on the Danish island of Funen has its origins in a 15th-century monastery which passed to the Crown after the Reformation, and since then has served as an administrative building: in turn as a seigneurial residence, an amt administrator's residence, a governor's residence, and a municipal government building. The main white Baroque building with 13 bays was designed by J.C. Krieger and completed in 1723. The Knights of St John are first mentioned in Odense in 1280. They appear to have acquired a monastery around 1400; during the next century