MARVELLOUS MUSEUMS

THE DESIGN MUSEUM

Beginning in the 50s, Danish designers like Poul Henningsen, Kaare Klint and Arne Jacobsen changed the look of objects familiar to us all. See their work here along with that of others, Danish and international, who helped shape today’s domestic environment. There is also an additional reason to visit – throughout 2016, a unique exhibition of Japanese art and crafts in tribute to the influence of Japanese applied art on the Danish aesthetic. 

THE DANISH JEWISH MUSEUM

Unique among all other European Jewish museums, the Copenhagen museum represents a blessing – a “Mitzvah” – as its architect Daniel Libeskind explains: “Danish Jews were, by and large, saved through the effort of their compatriots and neighbours during the tragic years of the Shoah (Holocaust). It is this deeply human response that differentiates the Danish Jewish community and is manifested in the form, structure and light of the new museum.” 
The first in Denmark to be dedicated to a minority group, the museum has been fitted into the 17th century Royal Boat House. The winding corridors of fractured passageways and slanting floors trace the Hebrew word “Mitzvah”. Exhibitions mark 400 years of Jewish life in Denmark, and the dramatic evacuation of most of the Jewish population by sea to neutral Sweden in October 1943. Address: Proviantpassagen 6 at the Royal Library Garden. Website: jewmus.dk

THE WORKERS' MUSEUM

The museum covers the period from the end of the 1800s to 1980, with special focus on daily life in the 1930s. There’s a furnished 1930s apartment, a grocery store, a union office, and a stately meeting and banquet hall. The building itself was built and paid for by unionised workers in 1878. 
The basement cafe/restaurant, “1892”, is particularly enticing, and you should also take time to visit the well-stocked boutique. Address: Rømersgade 22. Open: Monday to Sunday, 10.00-16.00. Website: www.arbejdermuseet.dk

3 TO NOTE

You may well pass Copenhagen’s Medical Museum on your way to the Design Museum; it’s a one-minute stroll away at Bredgade 65. The building dates from 1787, when it opened as the Royal Academy of Surgeons. It retains its period pharmacy and beautiful lecture hall. Today, the university medical museum is known for integrating contemporary medicine into its field of interest. Guided tours in English on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 14.00, and on Sunday at 13.30. The museum is closed on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday. Check opening hours on the website: museion.ku.dk

The Louisiana Museum, in Humlebaek, is a 35-minute drive or taxi ride north of the Bella Center. It is an immensely popular museum of contemporary art. Visit for the art, landscape, architecture, or the views. The museum is directly on the shore of the Øresund Sound. When it opened as a museum in 1958, the founder intended it as a home for modern Danish art, but it soon became an international museum with many world-renowned works. It has undergone seven extensions, the most recent in 2006. All were carried out by the museum’s original architects, Jorgen Bo and Vilhelm Wohlert, who were influenced by San Francisco Bay Area buildings and Japanese aesthetics. Open: Tuesday to Friday, 11.00-22.00; and Saturday, Sunday, and holidays, 11.00-18.00. The cafe/restaurant serves snacks and meals from Tuesday through to Friday from 11.00-21.30, and on Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 11.00-17.30. Closed on Mondays. Website: en.louisiana.dk

At Kongen Nytorv 2, in the colourful Nyhavn area, there’s a picturesque old building marked Ravhuset Amber Museum and Amber Shop. The ground-floor shop sells objects made of amber, but a door in the back leads up to two tiny floors of the museum. One of the many attractions is a collection, shown under magnifying glass, of more than 100 pieces of amber that encase insects and plants that are more than 30 million years old. Open daily from 10.00-20.00 from March through to October. For more details, visit the website at: houseofamber.com

e pcomt in Copenhagen’s Design Museum