Museum of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

The Museum of Copenhagen (Københavns Bymuseum) is the official museum of Copenhagen city. It documents the history from the 12th century to the present day. The museum is located close to the Central Station at Vesterbrogade, in a mansion from 1787 which used to house the Royal Copenhagen Shooting Society, and overlooks Skydebanehaven, the former shooting range now serving as a small public park.

Outside the museum's entrance is a large scale model of medieval Copenhagen. Part of the adjacent street Absalongade serves as a museum street, featuring historic street furniture.

References:

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Museums in Denmark

User Reviews

Jon Jorgensen (21 months ago)
One of the most beautiful museum buildings with a very tastefully collection. I highly recommend just for the architecture, the rest is a bonus. There are some impressive and important works from the Danish Golden Age in the Danish part of the building.

Joanne Macdonald (21 months ago)
This is one incredibly beautiful space. However, for a top tourist destination in a capital city, I would love there to be more multilingual provision. An audioguide option, or a range of paper guides in a few languages would improve visitors' experiences.

Yixiao Song (21 months ago)
Best art museum in Copenhagen city. Absolutely my most rememberable part of my Copenhagen trip. Definitely worth to go even if you are not into art. This museum is phenomenal!!

Giuseppe Mennella (21 months ago)
Beautiful museum. Wonderful exhibition and presence of many important and interesting works. Both the historical wing with a classic architecture and the new wing built by Larsen are interesting. There is a space for breakfast that is located in the central area in the palm garden

Konrad Osmólski (2 years ago)
One of the most beautiful museums I've ever been. Besides exhibition, the architecture itself and composition of flowers, trees, lights and all sculptures is so amazing. I love the idea of huge garden inside the main hall and the fact that each path leads you to something amazing and extraordinary. Well designed place, great exhibitions and the perfect way to spend at least two hours of your daytime. For everyone who come to Copenhagen for holidays and for those who just pass through - must see!

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright Peer.Gynt

Historic Site of the week

Saint Sophia Cathedral

The St Sophia's Cathedral was built between 1045-1050 inside the Novgorod Kremlin (fortress). It is one of the earliest stone structures of northern Russia. Its height is 38 m. Originally it was taller, for during the past nine centuries the lower part of the building became concealed by the two-metre thick cultural layer. The cathedral was built by Prince Vladimir, the son of Yaroslav the Wise, and until the 1130s this principal church of the city also served as the sepulchre of Novgorodian princes. For the Novgorodians, St Sophia became synonymous with their town, the symbol of civic power and independence.

The five-domed church looks simpler but no less impressive than its prototype, the thirteen-domed St Sophia of Kiev. The cathedral exterior is striking in its majesty and epic splendour evoking the memories of Novgorod's glorious past and invincible might. In the 11th century it looked more imposing than now. Its facade represented a gigantic mosaic of huge, coarsely trimmed irregular slabs of flagstone and shell rock. In some places (particularly on the apses), the wall was covered with mortar, smoothly polished, drawn up to imitate courses of brick or of whitestone slabs, and slightly coloured. As a result, the facade was not white, as it is today, but multicoloured. The play of stone, decorative painting and the building materials of various texture enhanced the impression of austere simplicity and introduced a picturesque effect.

The two-storied galleries extend along the building's southern, western and northern sides, with a stair-tower constructed at the north-eastern corner. The cathedral has three entrances - the southern, western and northern, of which the western was the main one intended for ceremonial processions. A gate standing at the entrance is known as the Sigtuna Gate (mid-12th century); according to legend, it was brought from the Swedish town of Sigtuna in 1187. The second name of the gate derives from the town of Magdeburg, where it was made. The two leaves are decorated with biblical and evangelical scenes in cast bronze relief. In the lower left corner there are portraits of the craftsmen who created this superb specimen of medieval Western European bronze-work. An inscription in Latin gives their names, Riquin and Weissmut. The small central figure - judging from an inscription in Slavonic - is a representation of the Russian master craftsman Avraam, who assembled the gate.

There is yet another bronze gate in the cathedral, called the Korsun Gate. Made in the 11th century in Chersonesos, Byzantium, it leads from the southern gallery into the Nativity Side-Chapel. Legend has it that the gate was handed over to Novgorod as a gift of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (c. 978 - 1054).

The interior of the cathedral is as majestic as its exterior. It is divided by huge piers into five aisles, three of which end in altar apses. In the south-western corner, inside the tower, there is a wide spiral in relatively small, modest buildings of the 12th - 16th centuries.

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