Denmark — The Exceptional Museums of Copenhagen
Beyond its iconic canals lined with colorful medieval houses, its world renowned Tivoli Garden entertainment park and historic royal residences, Copenhagen is also home to some exceptional museums.
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Founded in 1888 by Carl Jacobsen, the scion of the Carlsberg brewing empire, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is a stunning museum housing over 10,000 works focused especially on early Mediterranean antiquities and 19th century French art. A passionate collector, Jacobson bequeathed his Impressionist collection to the public in 1882, and built the Glyptotek to house it. Then in 1899, he donated his collection of antiquities, which led to the opening of a whole extra wing.
Roman child sarcophagus (circa 150 AD in the winter garden.
From the onset, Jacobson intended the Glyptotek to be a retreat where visitors could escape the outside world and simply enjoy the beauty and aesthetics of art. To this end, the entrance of the museum is through a peaceful winter garden under a soaring glass dome, leading into a maze of marble statues and sculptures. All of the galleries were thoroughly renovated a couple decades ago and the Glyplotek remains to this day a haven of tranquility and a favorite retreat from the sometimes less than idyllic Copenhagen weather.
The Ancient Mediterranean
The central hall showcases a Roman marble colonnade.
The recently restored galleries of the antiquities wing dazzle with works ranging from the early cultures of the Middle East to the fall of the Roman Empire. The collection of Roman artefacts showcases ancient marble sculptures and statues gathered from sites across the Roman world, covering everything from 600 BC to 500 AD. It includes finds from important Roman villas as well as a rich selection of funeral artefacts from the Roman city of Palmyra in current days Syria. It includes remarkable funerary busts and grave stones, and is considered one of the largest such collections outside the country
The French Impressionists
A vast gallery is dedicated to French Impressionists.
The wealth of Impressionist works assembled by Jacobson is equally dazzling, with a large gallery dedicated to works by Monet, Sisley, Degas, van Gogh, Cézanne and many others. The Glyptotek has one of the three existing complete sets of Degas’ bronze sculptures, and the largest collection of Rodin sculptures outside of Paris, including monumental bronze casts.
National Museum of Denmark
The Trundholm Sun Chariot is a late Nordic Bronze Age artifact.
Housed in an 18th century royal mansion in central Copenhagen the Nationalmuseet (or National Museum of Denmark, is the country’s largest repository of its cultural history. One of its most compelling attraction is the huge Danish Prehistory Collection. Located on the ground floor, multiple rooms arranged around a central courtyard immerse the visitors in the country’s history. Spanning roughly 9,000 years of human activity, it ranges fromfrom Stone Age burial finds to treasures of the Viking era.
Falster Island bull elk skeleton.
Unique archaeological treasures include the Trundholm Sun Chariot (circa 1400 BC), the Egtved Girl grave (14th century BC), the Gundestrup cauldron (2nd century BC), various burial goods from the Hoby chieftain’s grave (1st century AD), displays of bog bodies, and even the intact skeleton of a massive bull elk presumed to have sank into a peat bog on the island of Falster some 8,700 years ago.
The Viking Exhibition
Rune stones trace the long Viking history.
Eventually, you arrive at the Viking exhibition. At one time, Vikings controlled vast swathes of Europe, and extended their reach all the way to North America. A wall-sized map at the beginning of the exhibition shows how far their influence extended. Notable exhibits include a vast collection of rune stones, carved stones erected as memorials to powerful Viking figures. A number of them also illustrate the regions’s transition from Norse Paganism to Christianity.
The silver hoard for Terslev, Zealand, includes a vast number of coins of Arab origin.
Meanwhile, massive assortment of silver hordes and other buried wealth such as Arabic dirhams and coins minted in other distant trading hubs illustrate the far reaching trading network of the Vikings. And the abundance of “status weapons”, finely crafted swords and scabbards richly inlaid in silver and gold stand as the ultimate symbol of these elite warriors.
Design Museum Denmark
The museum is housed in one of the finest 18th-century rococo building in the city.
Fast forward to the present. Great design is everywhere in Denmark. Danish Modern design began in the 1920’s and 30’s as a blend of traditional cabinetmaking, functionalism and human-centric ergonomics. It was pioneered by architect Kaare Klint, who founded the furniture department at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in 1924. He advocated matching furniture dimensions to the human body and focusing on simplicity and utility.
The Chair Tunnel showcases the evolution of Danish furniture design from the 1920s to the 1970s,
Danish Modern gained popularity in the Western World, became a style and quite literally a national brand. The Designmuseum Danmark (Design Museum Denmark) explores how Danish designers have methodically worked with design processes and tells the story of the success behind Danish design. The permanent exhibition takes visitors on a fascinating design journey from Klint’s ‘Room for a Woman’, over the iconic German Frankfurter kitchen, which illustrates both differences and similarities between Danish and European modernism, and the futuristic high-tech designs of the 1980s. From furniture and ceramics to industrial design and textiles, the museum focuses on the creation of the most emblematic Danish design.
With its classic marble colonnade and large glass roof, the central hall of the Glyptotek is designed to evoke a Roman Forum.
Good to Know
The NY Carlsberg Glyptotek is located at Dantes Plads 7, off Hans Christian Andersen’s Boulevard, in central Copenhagen, a 20 minute walk from Nyhavn. It is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with late-night hours to 9:00 PM on Thursday. It is closed on Monday and major holidays including December 24, 25 and 26, and January 1.
The National Museum of Denmark is located at Ny Vestergade 10, in central Copenhagen, near Frederiksholms Kanal and Christiansborg Palace, an easy 10 minute walk from the Glyptotek. It is open daily April through October, and Tuesday through Sunday November through March, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 pm. It is closed on December 24, 25 and 31, and January 1.
The Design Museum Denmark is located at Bredgade 68 in central Copenhagen, within easy walking distance of from Amalienbord Palace and Nyhavn. It is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with late hours on Thursday to 8:00 pm. It is closed on December 24, 25 and 31, and January 1.
A Few Souvenirs
