Museum sights in Copenhagen
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Thorvaldsens Museum
One of the most distinctive buildings in Copenhagen, this colourful Greco-Roman mausoleum with its classically inspired friezes was the country’s first purpose-built art museum. It houses the majority of works produced during the long and illustrious career of Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844). Thorvaldsen spent much of his working life in Rome, where he drew inspiration from classical mythology. The museum contains a fascinating collection of the artist’s own collection of art and ancient artefacts from the Mediterranean region…and the artist himself, buried in the main room.
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Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
This exceptional collection of paintings and sculptures, founded by beer baron Carl Jacobsen in 1888, has recently been extensively renovated. The Winter Garden (with a lovely, homely cafe) that lies at the heart of this vaguely Venetian-looking building has now been returned to its former glory and from here you can meander through a magnificent post-impressionist collection, including a large number of works by Gauguin and pieces by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Monet and Degas, as well as viewing 5000 years’ worth of sculpture.
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Kunstindustrimuseet
The Danish Museum of Art and Design is one of the city’s most stimulating cultural offerings, boasting an impressive collection of decorative arts, including extensive displays of European and oriental furniture, silverware and porcelain, with an emphasis on 20th-century Danish design. It’s housed in a former hospital built around a courtyard in 1752. It’s a wonderful spot to spend a rainy afternoon, and there is an inviting cafe to boot.
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Medicinsk Museum
This fascinating, if occasionally gruesome, museum housed in a former teaching hospital covers the history of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry. It’s all rather chilling, with plenty of pickled body parts and grisly diagrams. The original teaching theatre, where hundreds of cadavers have been dissected over the years, has an especially ghoulish atmosphere.
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Dansk Jødisk Museum
Designed by Polish-born Daniel Libeskind, the Danish Jewish Museum is housed in an early-17th-century building (formerly the Royal Boat House) that has been transformed into an intriguing geometrical space. The museum’s entrance is on the southern side of the garden, which lies to the rear of the Kongelige Bibliotek.
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Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Whacky Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum displays the expected collection of unexpected oddities from around the world (such as a six-legged calf) replicated in wax figures and tableaux. Revelling in its own outlandish clichés, this place gets packed with young folk.
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Frihedsmuseet
This small museum charts the exploits of the Danish resistance during the occupation by the Germans in 1940 to liberation by the British in 1945. Exhibits include moving letters written by resistance fighters awaiting execution, uniforms and sabotage equipment.
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Tøjhusmuseet
The Royal Arsenal Museum houses a stunning collection of historic weaponry, from canons and medieval armour to pistols, swords and even a WWII flying bomb. Built by Christian IV in 1600, the 163m-long building is Europe’s longest vaulted Renaissance hall.
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Guinness World of Records Museum
The touristy Guinness World of Records Museum on Strøget uses displays, film and photos to depict the world’s superlatives – the tallest, fastest, oddest and so on.
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Nationalmuseet
If you want to learn more about Danish history and culture, you couldn’t do better than spending an afternoon at Nationalmuseet, opposite the western entrance to Slotsholmen.
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Gammel Dok
Home to the Dansk Arkitektur Center, this converted 19th-century warehouse offers changing exhibitions on Danish and international architecture, as well as an excellent bookshop.
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Københavns Bymuseet
The city museum is looking a little old-fashioned these days but if you want to find out how Copenhageners used to live, this 18th-century former palace is the place to find out.
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De Kongelige Stalde & Kareter
The Royal Stables & Coaches Museum has a unique collection of antique coaches, uniforms and riding paraphernalia, some of which is still used for royal occasions.
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Zoologisk Museum
With its interesting display of stuffed animals, sealife and birds, Copenhagen’s zoological museum is popular with kids.
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Statens Museum for Kunst
Denmark’s impressive National Gallery.
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