 As early as 1070, Adam von Bremen referred to Roskilde as "Zealand's largest town".At the time of the Reformation in 1536, it had some 6,000 inhabitants but as a result of war, fire and disease, by 1753 its population had dropped to only 1,550.By the 1860s, it had grown to around 5,000 and by the 1900s to some 9,000.