National Museum, Copenhagen

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The National Museum presents the cultural history of Denmark as well as that of foreign countries, and is the biggest of its kind in Denmark. The Museum is also responsible for the handling of national treasures found around the country.

The Museum is situated at Frederiksholm Kanal, and is housed in a Rococo style mansion which used to serve during the 18th century as the offical residence of the Crown Prince of Denmark.

The permanent exhibition includes sections on Danish Prehistory, the Danish Middle Ages and Modern Danish History. There are also various temporary exhibitions.

The museum is full of wonderful artefacts, and if you're remotely interested in history and archaeology I would advise you to set aside a couple of hours at least for looking around. The highlight of my visit in 2005 was seeing the Gundestrup cauldron - wonderful to see it in real life after having only known its picture for so many years.

I naturally visited again after returning to Copenhagen for work in 2011, and after the prehistory collection area had been renovated between 2005-8. I think that that exhibition now flows much better, and the displays are clearer.

Entry is free, and it is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm.

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Nationalmuseet (The National Museum) is Denmark’s largest museum of cultural history with exhibitions of Danish prehistory, Danish middle ages, the renaissance, and modern Danish history. Besides the history of the Danes there are also a few interesting exhibitions from around the world, for instance ‘Peoples of the Earth', ‘Ethnographical Treasures’, and ‘Near Eastern and Classical Antiquities’.

I have visited the museum several times and find it to be a really great place – and huge - I don’t think I have seen it all yet. The National Museum is absolutely recommendable on a rainy day…

The National Museum is located in The Prince's Palace, which was home to members of the royal family in the 18th century. The palace was built by Nicolai Eigtved between 1743 and 1744.

The admission to the museum is free.

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The National Museum(Nationalmuseet) is a huge museum (largest in Denmark) that is housed at Prince’s Palace(a 17th century mansion).

It covers the Danish cultural history from ancient times through middle ages and from renaissance to modern history. Because of the free admission I was afraid that it would be crowded but it was almost empty in most parts (it seems people come to Copenhagen to enjoy the amusement park!).
Although there are some parts dedicated to world themes (peoples of the earth, eastern and classical antiquities etc) we tried to focus our visit on the Danish history. We took a plan at the entrance and we went slowly from one room to the other, of course it was impossible to see everything so we had to skip (children section) or walk fast forward some exhibitions (we didn’t really read any information sign at iron and bronze era sections).

The museum is open tue-sun 10-17.00
FREE admission

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The National Museum is a museum tracing the cultural history of Denmark and is housed in an 17th century mansion. There are exhibits from pre-history, the Stone, Iron and Bronze ages and then the Vikings before it progresses to the Renaissance, Middle ages and modern history. There is a People of the World exhibit, classical and near Eastern artifacts, and a children's section. The museum is really large and we only got through part of it, eschewing the People of the Word and Classical bits.

The museum is fully accessible with lifts and ramps and automatic doors between the various exhibition rooms. We did find that the museum parts we saw was a bit warm and stuffy. That probably had more to do with the climate control and all the doors closing off the circulation in each room.

We went through the Prehistory sections through to the Renaissance and saw such things as a silver cauldron from 100 BC, Viking drinking horns, the bones of an Aurochs, oak coffins containing remains of clothes and bones. There is also a section on Peoples of the World and a children's museum as well.

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Nationalmuseet:The national museum. This museum is a life saver in Copenhagen in bad weather, the admision is free so just get out of the rain. Its collection is huge and even as a inhabitant of the city I have never got to see all of it jet. It is divided into periods in danish history, so the thing to do, is to chose one and look at it. The best period in, my opinion, Stone to Vikingage has just gotten a makeover and have now reopen in 2008. Beside the permanent collections it also have a temporary that can be on any subject, last time I visit it was on Korea.
One of the newest acquisitions is a wonderful decorated hashbooth from Christiania it was saved befor the police ruined Pusher street ....befor one was not abel to take photos of it in Christiania. So now I had the chance ;-)

Piddling with rain, the National museum looked like a good option - if only to avoid a torrential downpour.

And what a good choice. The National museum has obviously put alotof time and effort into it's collections. As were with our 3 year old, the Children's museum area looked to be a good choice. It wasn't a high-tech affair, but it had tons of hands-on equipment that was great for the younger age group, especially if they are into dressing up.

The little viking longboat was a real winner along with the chance for mum and dad to dress up like viking as well for some corny photographs. There was also a 19th century school room, some castle ramparts and medieval kitchens to explore - all with associated play equipment.

Little ones may also enjoy the rather large collection of doll's houses. These are displayed in such a way that you can walk around the back of some them and get an almost 'inside eye' view of the meticulous detail goes into their construction.

I'll name thar rune in three !

The national Musuem has a rather impressive 'Rune room' which is wll worth a visit. These standing stones are heavily carved using a variety of symbols that predate modern alphabets.
The earliest example come from the 2nd century and about eight thousand or so of them have been found since. They can be found all across Scandanavia, especially in Sweden but they also appear in Scotland, Ireland and Greeland for example.

Most people think of them as a means to divination - believing that some 'Druid' type people could use them to conjure up predictions about the future. The evidence for this is actually quite limited, and most were probably used to mark important events and people for all time.

Either way, there is a certian eerie silence in the room that needs to be experienced.

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Denmark National Museet, or National Museum, presents the story of the Danish Kingdom from the middle ages to the Present. Fascinating temporary exhibits share the building with comprehensive permanent displays. While the more recent centuries of Danish history are interpreted with updated, relevant, and interesting artifacts, material from the more distant centuries is presented in a disjointed and confused fashion. You might think that it would be hard to present the Viking and medieval history of the Danes is a boring and tedious fashion - but they manage to do it here. It's my humble opinion that the older sections of the National Museum are in need in accordance with contemporary styles and standards of museumology. This could be one of the real highlights of any visit to Copenhagen - but it needs some work.

The core building of the National Museet was a grand 17th century townhome built for a key figure in the Royal Administration. A few historic chambers of the grand house have been preserved in the museum. The museum also owns a nearby 19th century house that has been maintained as a showcase of Danish Victorian design - I didn't get a chance to see it on this visit, but would like to sometime.

I found the National Museum a great place to learn about both the history of Copenhagen and Denmark. However I have just read that the Danish prehistory section of the museum was closed on January 1st, 2006 to undergo renovations and change their display context. It is unfortunate that visitors within the next 2 and a half years will miss out on this (it is closed until May 2008). However, despite this, you will still be able to wander through rooms containing artefacts and information on: Danish Middle Age and Renaissance, Modern Danish History, the Victorian Home, Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, the Ethnographic Collection, the Collection of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities and the Children’s Museum.

I love history, although while I prefer studying history from the past three centuries, it is always interesting to learn and see things from a countries past that has survived 5 centuries or more. The National Museum has a great layout and is easy to follow through the ages, there are notes in both Danish and English accompanying each display.

Admission is free to the majority of exhibits (although some special exhibits do charge for entrance - usually around 50DKK for Adults)

This place is huge. There is so much stuff to see, most of it Danish artifacts and Danish history, but they also have some artifacts from other areas of the world. My favorite part of this museum was the number of old corpses of early Danish settlers. Some even still have hair! This museum was a bit pricely, but it is fully worth it if you spend a lot of time there and don't rush yourself.
Another thing to keep in mind; a lot of these corpses and artifacts were found right in Denmark. That 10000 year old ring you're looking at was found less than 100 miles away. While the British Museum in London may be better known, most of its collection was pillaged from other countries. This museum is truly homegrown!