Odense Things to Do

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Odense Cathedral (St.Canute’s church) is the oldest and probably the largest church in Odense.

There was a travertine church in Romanesque style since 11th century that was built to house the remains of King Canute that was murdered in St Alban church in 1086. The church was burned down in 1247 and the church we see today was built 2 centuries later (in 1499) in gothic style, amazing that it took about 200 years to be completed! We took some photos of the cruciform shape of the cathedral and then walked inside to check the high vaulted ceilings and the rest of the interior.

The altarpiece that dates from the early 16th century is beautiful while the organ dates from 1752 (actually only the façade is original, the organ expanded and improved later).

We also visited the crypt where you can see on display the skeleton of King Canute and also his brother Benedict. There were a lot of nuns there visiting the crypt that day and obviously they took a lot of time there, we just took some pictures.

Free admission
It’s open 10.00-17.00 (Sundays 12.00-17.00), visits are not allowed during services

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H.C.Andersen Haven (Eventyrhaven) is a beautiful park located at the area SE of the Odense cathedral.

It was always a big garden with fruits and other useful things for the monks and later a place only for wealthy member if a book club!

When in 1941 the City Council decided to renovate the area around the Town Hall and the Cathedral the park came to life. Some buildings had to be demolished, the park finally opened to the public in 1945.

What we see today is a peaceful relaxing area, we spend some minutes walking around, the flowers were colorful, we loved the small winding river (pic 2) or just save some energy at the benches (pic 3), we also noticed many locals having picnic at many spots, we just had ice cream from a small kiosk.

By the way you will notice the statue of Andersen at the back side of the Cathedral (pic 4).
The park is open from sunrise to sunset and has no admission fee.

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Walking in the city center along Vestergade is a must do especially if you are into shopping, many stores will attract your attention and will ask to empty your wallet :)

We just walked at this central pedestrian street which seems to be the main commercial street in the city, full of people most of the time (pic 1) it has a lot of street artists, musicians (pic 2) and some fountains and sculptures.

We had a tasty ice cream and checked some of the side streets on our way to Odense Theatre

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Odense Theater was built in 1914 and since then it hosted hundreds of plays. The history of the theatre goes back to the end of 18th century though (1796).

The theater has 3 different stages with different capacity.

Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to check the interior or attend to any performance at Odense Theater but we walked by to check the building because it’s located at the city center a few meters away from Funen Art Museum. And I’ve read later that there is a restaurant at the top floor with nice view, if we knew that we may have been inside one of the numerous times we passed by.

Later in the day on our way to Munkemose we passed by Norregaards Teater/Teater monument(Theater Momentum) (pic 3) that was pointed on my tourist map but I found out that it’s not a monument but a new theater (founded in 2005). For those who are interested it’s located at Filosofgangen 19.

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Funen Art Museum(Fyns Kunstmuseum ) has a nice collection of danish paintings but also some other items like some sculptures.

It is housed on a beautiful building in Greco-roman style(pic 1) and like in almost every museum in Odense there were only 3-4 other visitors inside! First we walked around a bit with no plan, it seems the museum covers several different periods but we spent most of our time at the temporary collection(june-october 2011) called The Evening Land, dedicated to motifs and moods in Danish Landscape Painting around 1800.

Some favorite paintings there were the ones made by H.A.Brendekilde, you can see “Cowed” on pic 5.

Hopefully, the free leaflet had detailed description of each painting, I wish I had something like that in every museum (usually you can buy one but that’s not really an option)

It’s open tue-sun 10.00-16.00
The entrance fee is 40DKK

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Sct Ansgars Kirke is a protestant church that dates from 1902. It’s supposed to be the first church that was built in the city since the medieval times, probably because at the end of 19th century there was a huge movement from rural to urban areas so the city extended. The construction lasted for 2 years with many donations including the church bells and many items that used inside the church.

The was a ceremony taking place during our visit so we just stood at the back watching for a while but we couldn’t take pictures of the interior. I’ve read that the acoustics in the church are great and a lot of concerts take place from time to time that usually include the local choir.

On my way out I took some pictures of the sculptures (pic 3) at the small square in front of the church and also checked some buildings near by (pics 4-5)

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Munke Mose is another beautiful park at the city center, actually not more than 15’ walk from the Town Hall.

It seems the locals love it too because the sunny day we visited it was full of people lying on the grass or near the water (the Odense river runs through the park). It is also a popular spot for celebrations during May 1-Workers Day.

We walked a bit around, it was so relaxing being there. There are also small boats for tour in the river or you can also a water cycle and do it your own way.

In 1881 Odense Municipality bought the meadow area around Munke Molle Factory so to stop them to build there. Later -in 1912- turned into a public park with donations from L. Chr. Dæhnfeldt (a wealthy local merchant, you can see a statue of him in the park).

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Maybe in our days taking the train, our car or the plane is just the normal way but before the railway almost everyone walked, regardless of whether their destination was the nearest town or beyond.

National Railway Museum (Jernbanemuseum) is the largest train museum in Scandinavia covering more than 10,000 sq meters. If you are a train buff you will love the beautifully restored steam or diesel locomotives, we walked inside some of them, checked details here and there, there are locomotives for the poor, the rich people and special ones for the royal family (if you are interested to see the carriage of King Christian IX for exable) but I have to admit that we got bored after a while (there are more than 50 locomotives there but also coaches and other vehicles!)

The museum is housed on a huge building that is a replica of a historic station! From the entrance you see the exhibits in a specific order (1847, 1900, buses, Royal, special exhibitions etc) + some smaller exhibitions like a boat collection with scale models (pic 4), some train scale models (pic 5) but kids will prefer the one mini train anyway (but I see no reason to visit this museum for this) etc

The museum is open daily 10.00-16.00
The entrance fee is 80DKK (or free with the City Pass)