TOURIST IN DENMARK ?

What to see and where to go?
On this page I write about spots, museums and towns of interest throughout Denmark. If you have questions concerning locations I have not yet had time to post information about on the blog, you are very welcome to put them in the comment box at the bottom of the page. I will answer you directly - or put the information out on this page as fast as possible.

Denmark in general:
Roughly you can divide Denmark into three major parts: The peninsula Jutland (on the left), with its foot attached to North Germany, and the two major islands Funen (in the middle) and Sealand. Aroumd them all  there are smaller islands. The capital Copenhagen is located on the East coast of Sealand.

Funen:

Odense: On the left you see the little house where the fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen grew up. Today it is part of the Hans Christian Andersen Museum. Photograph by Tina Høegh Nielsen.

The island of Funen is a big island located right in the middle of Denmark. It is the island where Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75) was born . So let us start with a visit to the Hans Christian Andersen-Museum in Odense - the 'capital' of Funen. Here you find information not only about the fairy-tale writer himself, but also about life in Denmark during his lifetime. A little house where the Andersen familiy lived in his early years are now a part of the museum. On display is also the writers tophat and his set of artificial teeth made of wood!

The Dome of Odense is also worth a visit. It is a gothic cathedral with a magnificent altarpiece by the famous Claus Berg. In the crypt is the tomb of the Danish king Knud 2.(Canute), called 'the Holy', who, according to tradition was murdered in his prayer inside this church. The church was later named after him: Sct. Knud.

Odense has two fine museums of art. Fyns Kunstmuseum (Funen Art Museum) has an interesting collection with paintings and sculture from the last 250 years of Danish art. Highlights are the portraits painted by Jens Juel at the turn of the 17th-18th century, the paintings by the Danish artists of the late 18th century and 1930s.
The Brandts Klædefabrik - located in the buildings of an old cloth factory - contains three galleries. One of holds exhibitions of the latest international art, one of photographs and one shows a permanent collection on the history of the graphic industry in Denmark. 'Brandts' as it just called localy has a café on the first floor and several restaurants and cafés nearby.

Let us then travel outside Odense. Southwest of the city is the pittoresque renæssance castle of Egeskov situated near the little town of Kvaerndrup. It is surrounded by moats and you enter by crossing a small bridge. The gardens are famous. Near the castle is a renæssance garden, and there is an old labyrinth near the old orchard. The home farm contains a veteran-car museum and extensive playgrounds for the children.

The fairy-tale castle Egeskov on Funen. Photographed by Tina Høegh Nielsen.

  Two museums of Funen is dedicated to the Funen-based artists colony of 1890-1960. The first one was the home of the artist Johannes Larsen (1867-1961), famous for his precise paintings of birds and shores around Funen. The Johannes Larsen Museum stands in the coastal town of Kerteminde in the northeast of Funen.  In the garden is a modern building with paintings by the group of Fynbomalere (Funen-painters) and their associates. The group worked in the same period of another painters colony, who are more famous abroad than the Fynbomalere: The Skagen-colony (P. S. Kroeyr, Anna Ancher, Michael Ancher a.o.). They wanted to depict the light of the country- and seaside of Fune. They created beautiful landscapes and portraits of their familys simple life in the countryside.

The dining-room in the home of the Danish painter Johannes Larsen in Kerteminde, Funen. Studies of the light and nature made the artists settle down in rural areas in the late 18th century. Johannes Larsen painted the decorations on the walls of his own dining-room. He lived in this house for over 60 years - he died in 1961 at the age of 94 and was active as a painter till the day he died! Photographed by Tina Høegh Nielsen 

The Faaborg Museum also has a fine collection of the Funen paintings. It was founded in 1910 by the group of painters themselves in association with the local entrepeneur and a tinned fruit factory owner Mads Rasmussen. Mads-Tomato, as he was called by the artists, provided the money for the project and the artists gave advice on which paintings to buy. The architecture of this pretty little museum is interesting. The building site was a very long and narrow piece of land between Mads Rasmussens home (now part of the museum) and with the factories and houses on the other side. The architect who worked wonders under these difficult terms was Carl Jensen and the museum was finished in 1915.

South of Funen lies the island of Taasinge. Here the manor house Valdemars Slot (Valdemar's Castle) is situated. The architecture is a complete baroque design. Is has a main house with an impressive entrance, a bassin surrounded by stables and a pittoresque tea-pavillon as a point-de-vue from the main house. In true baroque style it is a house made to impress. Inside it contains fine rooms in baroque and rococo style.

Jutland

At a windy, harsh spot in Northern Jutland you find the manor house Børglum Kloster (Børglum Abbey). In the Middle Ages it was an abbey and the residency of the bishop of Børglum. Later it was for a long time an abbey of the monks of the Praemonstratense order. The abbey church is still there - almost intact even though the interior has been altered in the beginning of the 18.th century. At the Reformation in 1536 all property of the churches were confiscated by the king. Since then Børglum Kloster has been a noblemans house.

Børglum Kloster (Børglum Abbey) is a private owned manor house today. But in the Middle Ages it was the residence af the Bishops of Børglum. From the North the old abbey church meets the visitor. The apsis of the former abbey church stood at the far left of the church wing but it was demolished due to decay in the middle of the 20.th century. The rest of the church is intact when it comes to the lay out. However the interior was altered by  the famous Danish architect Laurids de Thurah, who owned the manor house around the middle of the 18.th century.  Photo: Tina Høegh Nielsen.

       

Although the abbey has been a private home for over 400 years it is still possible to get an idea of how life was in the glorious Middle Ages. To day parts of the abbey is open to the public and in a wing you find a fine exhibition about the history of the building and the people who lived there, from the Middle Ages till the present.

The court yard of Børglum Kloster showing the wing built by Laurids de Thurah. Mainly in baroque style but Thurah was also inspired by the Rococo from France and by the works of the Italian renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and by the English Palladio-fan Lord Burlington. In 1749 Thurah published 'Den Danske Vitruvius' (the Danish Vitruvius) which was strongly inspired by Lord Burlingtons 'Vitruvius Brittanicus' of 1725 which was a tribute to Palladian and ancient architecture. Some days during the summertime plays about medieval life is staged in the middle of the court yard at Børglum. Photos: Tina Høegh Nielsen

One owner, who had an emmence impact on the present building, was the Danish Court Architect Laurids de Thurah. He became the owner in 1750 by marriage to the only daughter of the former owner. By then husbands automatically became the sole owner of their wifes properties. Thurah had a dispute with the Crown over his rights and duties which ended with his resignation. He became a very disillutioned man and turned all his attention to Børglum were he then intended to settle down for the rest of his life. He rebuilt and redecorated the house in style. A martyr in exile, as he felt he was, needed to have splendor around him.
After a few years 'in exile' he was reinstalled in his former possition and left the abbey. But the building of today is mainly his work.

The abbey church at Børglum Kloster was redecorated by Laurids de Thurah in the 1750's, but he did not alter the lay out of the church. The outlines is still the medieval abbey church. Thurah installed an alterpiece and baptistery in a vibrant baroque style.

The Baptistery in Baroque style painted to imitate different types of marble.

At the very top of Jutland, the small fishermens village of Skagen is famous for beeing the center of a painters colony around 1900. The Skagen painters, as they are widely known, made life in the small town the theme of their art: Portraits of old fishermen and their wifes, the beaches with the children playing in the sand, the tuff times when local fishermen were killed in a storm and cheerfull sunday lunches with their fellow artists. The Skagen Museum has a large number of the most famous paintings by P. S. Krøyer (1851-1909), Anna Ancher (1859-1935), Michael Ancher (1849-1927), Holger Drachmann (1846-1908) and other visitors to this spot in the North.
Only two of them, Anna and Michael Ancher, actually lived there all year around. Anna was born there, her family owned the local hotel Brøndums Hotel, which is still there today. Michael Ancher settled down in Skagen when he married Anna in 1880. Anna and Michael Anchers home is open to the public and also contains a number of interesting works of their own and their friends, the other Skagen Painters, who preferred to spend winter in the city in stead of in the windy and cold coastal village in the North.

Michael Ancher: The drowned fisherman, 1896, Skagens Museum

The old church of Skagen was buried during several sand storms. Today only the top of the tower is visible. A new church were build in a more secure spot closer to the centre of the village.

If we go West - still in North Jutland - there is an interesting story to tell at a simple grave in the church yard at Vestervig. A long slim stone without an inscription (maybee there was one once?) marks the grave. The story goes: In the 12.th century King Valdemar the Great left his family to go on a pilgrimage. His young sister Liden Kirsten (Little Kirsten) had shown interest in prince Buris, but he was not considered a suitable match for the sister of a king. When the king came back he found his sister pregnant. In his fury he danced her to death at a court ball. She was buried at Vestervig (then a convent) and prince Buris had his eyes put out and was then chained to the church wall so that he could just reach the grave of Liden Kirsten. When he died he was buried beside her.

Vestervig Church. Photo: Tina Høegh Nielsen

A couple of decades ago the grave was opened. It contained the skeletons of a man and woman. However they were both approxemately fifty years old when they died. The story might be true though, they could be buried somewhere else....
The size of the church in this little town tells the story of the days when it was still a part of a convent. The interior of the church is also worth visiting.

Further down on the West coast of Jutland, near the town Vemb, a newly restaured Manor House, Nørre Vosborg, is located. Parts of the four winged Manor House is turned into hotel and conference rooms.

The Manor House of Nørre Vosborg near Vemb i West Jutland. The photograph showes the renaissance wing on the right which is attached to the neo-gothic wing and on the far left (barely shown) is the neo-classical wing. Photos: Tina Høegh Nielsen.

 At Nørre Vosborg one has the opportunity to study four different architectural styles of Danish architecture. The oldest part of the Manor (shown above to the right) is a rectangular renaissance building from the 16.th century. Then in the baroque periode another wing was built - a low one-storage one. In the beginning of the 19.th century the owner needed more space and build a wing in the style of his days, the neo-classicism. The latest addition is the corner building that connects the renaissance wing with the neo-classical wing. It was added in the 1850's and therefore is in the neo-gothic style. The three wings shown in the photograph above are all open to the public but the baroque wings are turned into hotel rooms.

One of the rooms in the neo-classical wing at Nørre Vosborg. If you are a hotel guest you are welcome to sit down anywhere you like in the house. If you are not staying as a guest it is still possible to visit the house daily and see the fine interiors of the different styled wings of the Manor House. 

The surrounding gardens are pittoresque as is the funny little gate house through which you enter the court yard. The fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen was a guest at Nørre Vosborg at several occations in the middle of the 19.th century (he didn't own a house in the countryside himself but travelled around the country visiting many a manor house during the summer season, in return he wrote some of his fairy tales with references to various castles and stately homes). A bedroom - still intact - shows the bed he slept in.

The bed in which the fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen slept during his visit in the 1850's. The style of it shows that it was brand new at the time. The curtains are painted at the walls. 

Nørre Vosborg is open all year around but is at its best during the summer time when the garden and surrounding landscape is full of colours

A corner of the gardens at Nørre Vosborg with the rhododendrons in full bloom at the beginning of June. At the left is the bridge over the moat surrounding the manor house.

  
Coming up - more interesting places to visit in Jutland and Sealand!