DK Travel : Copenhagen : Nationalmuseet

Nationalmuseet

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The National Museum presents the history and culture of the Danes from prehistoric times to the present. It also houses a wonderful collection of Greek and Egyptian antiquities, an ethnographic collection and is also the keeper of the Royal Collection of Coins and Medals. Many of the displays derive from King Frederik III’s Royal Cabinet of Curiosities put together around 1650. The state collection has had several homes and is currently housed in the Prince’s Palace at Frederiksholms Kanal, where it has been since the 1850s.
The museum’s pre-historic collection is closed till May 2008. The Victorian Home, a plush apartment with authentic 19th-century interiors, owned by the museum, is also located nearby. Visit the museum café on the second floor, or go to Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek , for lunch in the Winter Garden.

Top 10 Features

1. The Sun Chariot

The unique Sun Chariot or Solvognen , a masterpiece of casting, was dug up in 1902 by a farmer ploughing his field. This 3,400-year-old artifact from the Bronze Age shows a horse on wheels pulling a large sun disk, gilded only on one side to represent its daytime trajectory.
2. Oak Burial Coffins

Seven oak, Bronze-Age coffins, dating back to 1,400 BC, occupy space on the ground floor. The Egtved grave, holding the body of a well-preserved, fully-clad young woman is an extraordinary exhibit.
3. GundestrupCauldron

Found near Gundestrup, this silver cauldron from the Iron Age, is decorated with animals and mystical figures.
4. State Rooms

The State Rooms date back to the time when this building was a royal palace. They are virtually intact from the period 1743–44; the Great Hall is adorned with the original Flemish tapestries to this day.
5. Inuit Culture

This collection from Greenland showcases the astonishing skill and creative ingenuity from the frozen North. The displays include clothing like embroidered anoraks and boots, assorted toys and watercolours of daily life.
6. China, Japan and the Far East

The Far East is well represented in this marvellous collection that includes Japanese laquerwork, fabulously-costumed Samurai warriors, replete with weaponry and beautiful 18th-century Imperial Dragon robes, worn by the Chinese emperor.
7. George and the Dragon

This massive wooden sculpture of St George, patron saint of knights, was carved for a church in Schleswig and towers above on a 3-m (10-ft) plinth. Legend has it that in AD 300, he saved a village in Asia Minor from a dragon.
8. Room 117

This 18th-century bourgeois interior can be traced to the town of Aalborg in Jutland. A wood-panelled room in a sea of glass-display galleries, it features a heavy wooden four-poster bed, chest, coffered wooden ceiling and mullioned windows.
9. Cylinder Perspective Table

In Room 126, this table is a part of Frederik III’s Royal Cabinet of Curiosities. The table top shows him and his wife, Sophie Amalie, painted ingeniously in a distorted perspective: it gets rectified when viewed in the reflective surface of a cylinder at the centre of the table.
10. Denmark’s Oldest Coin

The name of Denmark and an image of a Danish king were first depicted on this small silver coin – found in Room 144 – that was struck in AD 995.

Practical Information

The museum’s pre-historic collection is closed till May 2008. The Victorian Home, a plush apartment with authentic 19th-century interiors, owned by the museum, is also located nearby. Visit the museum café on the second floor, or go to Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek , for lunch in the Winter Garden. Ny Vestergade 10 33 13 44 11 Open 10am–5pm Tue–Sun Free guided tours in English, Jun 11am Sun; Jul–Sep 11am every Tue, Thu and Sun Call for details of activities in the Children’s Museum Tour of Victorian Home Jun–Sep 11am Sun, sign up 10am adm for adults 50kr, concession holders 40kr, under-18 years free www.natmus.dk