Museum sights in Copenhagen
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Davids Samling
This jewel of a museum houses Scandinavia’s largest collection of Islamic art, including jewellery, ceramics and silk, and exquisite works such as an Egyptian rock crystal jug from AD 1000 and a 500-year-old Indian dagger inlaid with rubies. That’s all up on the 4th floor. On your way up, you can also spend a fruitful couple of hours taking in the museum’s fine Danish, English and French furniture and art from the 18th and 19th centuries. All of this was bequeathed to the museum by the barrister Christian Ludvig David, who died in 1960, and is maintained by his foundation. The museum is housed in his former home, a neoclassical mansion dating from 1806.
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Experimentarium
This frenetic, dizzying museum is dedicated to inspiring children’s interest in nature, technology, the environment and health. This is a genuinely exciting, hands-on experience and kids adore it. As well as all the permanent experiments there is a changing program of temporary themed exhibitions – previous ones have included dinosaurs, robots and Sports & Spinach. This 4100 sq m museum opened in 1991 and is located a little north of the city centre, along the coast, in the old brewery harbour beside the poshest suburb in the city. There is a cafe and shop on-site.
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Den Hirschsprungske Samling
Giving Davids Samling a run for its money as the city’s most underrated museum is tobacco magnate Heinrich Hirschsprung’s collection of Danish art, most of it from the first half of the 19th century, and featuring some of the nation’s most treasured paintings from its so-called Golden Age. The museum displays moving and powerful works by the widely celebrated Funen and Skågen schools, famous for their haunting landscapes and depictions of ‘ordinary’ Danes and including artists such as Christen Købke, CW Eckersberg and PS Krøyer.
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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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Orlogsmuseet
This museum, occupying a former naval hospital on Christianshavn Kanal, has more than 300 model ships, many dating from the 16th to the 19th century – meaning that if you are, or someone you know is, the type to get high from tooling around with hobby glue, then you have stumbled upon the mother lode. The museum also displays figureheads, navigational instruments, ship lanterns and the propeller from the German U-boat that sank the Lusitania.
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Lille Molle
The17th-century Lille Molle is a windmill that was turned over to the National Museum in the 1970s and has been preserved as its last owners left it – and they left it in a very interesting state. It’s situated on the ramparts that are southwest of Christiana, and if you time your visit just right, it’s perfect for a guided tour preceded or followed by an excellent meal at Bastionen & Løven, the attached restaurant/café.
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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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Botanisk Have
In the 10-hectare Botanisk Have you can wander along fragrant paths amid arbours, terraces, rock gardens and ponds. One entrance to the Botanisk Have is at the intersection of Gothersgade and Øster Voldgade, while the other is off Øster Farimagsgade.
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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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