Funen

Hans Christian Andersen Childhood Home Photo by Lennard Nielsen Click on the image for larger version

Funen's Favorite Sons

Everyone who loves fairytales must pay a visit to the Hans Christian Andersen Museum and to the author’s Childhood Home. In addition to mementos, furniture, letters and other bits and pieces from the author’s colorful life, you’ll find samples of his work as a collage artist and some of the charming paper silhouettes he cut to illustrate his stories. (Beat the crowds by making these your first stops of the day.)

Never mind that H.C. Andersen left Odense to pursue his career in Copenhagen. The city of his birth still holds him in fond regard. In summer, the Hans Christian Andersen parades in Lotze’s Garden (Lotzes Have) are a delight for young and old, as are the annual Hans Christian Andersen plays performed at the Funen Village (Den Fynske Landsby) living history museum. The Odense Tourist Bureau can give you a map and guide for a brief walking tour “in the footsteps” of Hans Christian Andersen. It includes visits to St. Hans Church, where he was baptized, and to the gardens behind St. Knuds Cathedral, where you’ll find a statue of the author and sculptures inspired by his stories.

Music lovers must make a stop at the Carl Nielsen Museum and Carl Nielsen’s Childhood Home. The museum, located in Odense, explores the life and work of Nielsen and of his wife, sculptress Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen. Nielsen’s childhood home, a short bus ride from the city center, houses exhibitions about his childhood in Funen.

Egeskov Castle Photo by Soren Lauridsen Click on the image for larger version

Castles and Manor Houses

If you take just one day-trip outside Odense, it should be a trip to Egeskov Castle. Arguably the best-preserved renaissance castle in Europe, this ancient red-brick fortification is set in a magnificent park with a challenging garden maze.

From Egeskov Castle continue on to Svendborg, where you can board the steamship Helge for a cruise through Svendborg Sound to Valdemars Castle on the island of Tåsinge.

If that whets your appetite for visiting historic homes, you will have plenty to keep you occupied. There are another 121 castles and manor houses left for you to see on Funen!

Museums with a Difference

Brandt’s Klaedefabrik is a remarkable museum center with surprises around every corner. Once a sprawling textile factory, it now houses vast art galleries with changing exhibitions, the Danish Printing & Press Museum, Museum of Photographic Art and the entertaining Time Collection – a grouping of “period rooms” that trace the development of life and style through the 20th century.

Funen Village (Den Fynske Landsby) is an open-air living history museum with more than 20 rural buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. Activity goes on year-round as historic re-enactors cook, weave and work on the farms as they would have done centuries ago.

Train fans will enjoy a visit to the lively Danish Railway Museum which charts rail and ferry travel over the past 150 years.

Hollufgård Archaeology and Landscape Museum takes you back to the earliest days of Funen pre-history. It is housed in a beautiful 1577 manor house and surrounded by a lush park.