Moesgård Museum

Højbjerg, Denmark

Moesgård Museum is situated at Moesgård manor near Aarhus. It is both a regional museum and a dedicated museum for archaeology and ethnography. The main part of the museum’s collection of archaeological artefacts is Danish, even though the museum possesses a rather large amount of archaeological material – known as The Ethnographical Collections – from Bahrain and other countries surrounding the Gulf. The Ethnographical Collections contains almost 50.000 artefacts from all over the world. They are used both for research and exhibitions. Besides artefacts The Ethnographical Collections contains photographic material, films and sound recordings. The museum’s exhibitions presents several unrivalled archaeological findings from Denmark’s ancient past, amongst others the Grauballe Man, the world’s best preserved bog body and the large ritual weapon caches from Illerup Ådal, testifying the power struggles and the warfare of the Iron Age. Furthermore the collection contains seven local rune stones. The main exhibition will be closed on 1. October 2012 due to rearrangements of the archaeological collections in Moesgård Museums new building, located only a short distance from the old manor house.

In the surrounding area of Moesgård, an open-air museum of several reconstructions have been made, each one reflecting a part of Denmark’s past. North of the museum two houses and a stave-church from the Viking Period have been build. First is a house from the Viking Age town of Hedeby near Schleswig, Germany. It has been dated to the time around 870 AD and is interpreted as the home of a craftsman’s or trader’s family. The other house is a reconstruction of a pit-house Viking Age Aarhus, from about 900 AD. Pit-houses are small huts, dug half-way into the ground, which could be used as dwellings, workshops or storerooms.

On a small hill behind the houses a stave-church has been erected together with a bell frame. None of the original stave-churches have survived, but the floor and post-holes from a stave-church were excavated under the present Hørning Church near Randers in 1960. Compared to the stone churches it was quite a small building, 31 feet long and 15 feet wide. Also preserved from the stave-church in Hørning was a portion of the so-called hammer-beam, the horizontal beam just under the roof-projection, which held the vertical planks. The ”Hørning-plank” was found as early as 1887 during a restoration of the walling of the present church. It can be seen in the Danish National Museum. On the outside the hammer-beam from Hørning was ornamented with the writhing serpents characteristic – of the Late Viking Period. On the basis of the growth-rings in the timber, it has been dated to about the year 1060, to the transition from the Viking Age Period to the Middle Ages. At the excavation site in Hørning, traces of a bell frame were discovered. This has also been reconstructed just in front of the church entrance. The church bell has been cast at Moesgård following a 900-year-old description of bell casting. It is a replica of the almost 800-year-old bell from Smollerup church near Viborg.

The estate of Moesgård covers 100 hectares of park, forest, open fields and shoreline, and extends from the museum buildings down to Aarhus Bay. The 4 km long Prehistoric Track runs through this area. A short walk from the museum an Iron Age house has been built. It is a reconstructed farmhouse from 200-300 AD, based on a settlement at Tofting near Husum just south of the Danish border. The house-type was well known throughout northern Europe. The building is 16 m long and both humans and cattle lived under the same roof. Near Moesgård Beach you will see a reconstruction of a cult-building, from the Funnel Beaker Period in the Late Stone Age (around 2500 BC). The original house was located near two dolmens and a passage grave at Tustrup in Northern Djursland. It is believed that this building might have been for religious ceremonies – perhaps as a resting place for the dead until the flesh had decayed and the bones could be moved into the surrounding graves. The building was burnt to the ground, and part of the roof sheeting of birch-bark with turf cover, had collapsed inwards with the burnt wall planking. 26 richly decorated offering vessels and pottery ladles representing the golden age of pottery in Danish prehistory, was found inside the building. The ceramics can be seen at Moesgård Museum. In the park at the manor you will find a house from Thailand. It is a donation to Moesgård Museum, given by the government of Thailand in 1975. The house is around 100 years old and originally from Ayutthaya – the old capital of Siam, 200 km north of Bangkok. Back then the house was a part of a larger building complex. Not far from Moesgård manor it is possible to visit an old water mill. This water mill is powered by the waters of Giber Å. The first reference to the mill is from 1590. All the buildings were rebuilt and an overshot mill-wheel installed in 1785. An extra storey was added to the mill house in 1852. Production ceased in 1910, but the mill is still in full working order.

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Category: Museums in Denmark

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4.7/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Amy Hansen (18 months ago)
I enjoyed it, it was very interesting and interactive. My 5yo was very scared though, however that may have been due to the current exhibit topic.
Thomas Øster (18 months ago)
A museum for the whole family, a very nice place in beautiful surroundings.
Alexis (21 months ago)
The location is spectacular ! The presentation of the exhibitions is incredible, there is clearly a lot of efforts put into this Museum. And we were lucky to come at a time where is was pretty much empty, which made it a lot more enjoyable. However it's pretty expensive, a bit repetitive and definitely lacks some interactiveness.
Becca Denley (21 months ago)
We have an årskort (annual pass) to Moesgaard, and love visiting all year round. Their permanent exhibitions are of the highest quality, and the temporary exhibits can always spark discussion and discourse into various highlighted events from history. It's definitely not your typical traditional museum, as they strive to tell the stories of our past in a more engaging way. Our favourite is the permanent viking exhibit, which allows you to choose a talisman that will then guide you on a journey of a person from old Aros' time. The architecture is absolutely stunning and thoughtful. Be sure to find the "take a break" rooms that have views over the beautiful surrounding landscape. The restaurant offers a delicious menu should you have the need for refreshments during your study of the exhibits. If you're lucky enough to visit in winter after a snowfall, you're welcome to toboggan down their epic green roof (b.y.o. sled!!, ? a unique experience that us Canadians truly appreciate! The adjacent forests and fields offer wonderful walking trails for those with extra time to enjoy nature: some of the paths lead to Moesgaard Beach and be sure to visit historical restaurant Skovmøllen along the way for a delightful lunch! ? Moesgaard is not to be missed!
Anne Weeks (23 months ago)
We truly enjoyed our visit in June 2022; this was by far the most interactive and immersive museum that we have ever visited. All the people involved in setting up this museum deserve our respect, since they must have spend countless hours setting up all the artifacts, crafting stories for each scene, designing all the interactive videos and scenes and setting up the lighting and sound. As a family we very much appreciated that any installation potentially exposing children to the more gruesome parts of history had a warning for parents beforehand, so that you could just skip it. Each level offers break rooms, where you can sort of leave the exhibition and enjoy the stunning views from the very unique building. There was so much to explore and learn, that we will definitely be coming back, whenever we find ourselves in Denmark again.
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