| ODENSE is proud to be the birthplace of Denmark's best-loved writer,
Hans Christian Andersen, as well as the childhood home of composer Carl
Nielsen. Named after Odin, chief of the pagan gods, Odense is one of the
oldest settlements in the country and was even home to King Knud II,
canonized after his murder here in 1086. Much of the pleasantly sleepy
city is pedestrianized, making it a perfect place to saunter about. You
can also cycle along the old rail tracks, which have been converted into
bicycle paths, or along the canal's edge past the elegant Danish
mansions painted in mustard, terracotta and sky blue. The city has a
range of good museums and a nightlife that's surprisingly lively, with
the focus on live music and jazz.
The Town
Save for an outlying museum, Odense is easily seen on foot, and you may
as well start with the city's major collection: the Hans Christian
Andersen Museum at Hans Jensen Stræde 37-45 (mid-June to Aug daily
9am-7pm; rest of the year Tues-Sun 10am-4pm; www.odmus.dk ; 35kr), in
the house where the writer was born in 1805. The son of a hard-up
cobbler, Andersen was only really accepted in his own country towards
the end of his life, which was perhaps why he travelled widely and often,
and left Odense at the first opportunity. The museum is stuffed with
intriguing items - bits of school reports, early notes and manuscripts
of his books, illustrations from the tales, an invitation from Charles
Dickens to stay in England and paraphernalia from his travels. A
separate gallery has headphones for listening to some of Andersen's
best-known tales and screens a sloppy slide-show, though plans for
renovating the museum and making more of Andersen's fabulous imagination
are under way.
The area around the museum, despite being all half-timbered houses and
clean, car-free cobbled streets, lacks character; indeed, if Andersen
were around he'd hardly recognize the neighbourhood, which is now one of
Odense's most expensive. For far more realistic local history, head to
Bymuseet Møntergården , a few streets away at Overgade 48-50 (Tues-Sun
10am-4pm; 15kr), where there's an engrossing assemblage of artefacts
dating from the city's earliest settlements to the Nazi occupation, plus
an immense coin collection. There's more about Andersen at
Munkemøllestræde 3-5, between Skt. Knud Kirkestræde and Klosterbakken,
in the tiny Hans Christian Andersen's Childhood Home (mid-Jun to Aug
daily 10am-4pm; rest of year Tues-Sun 11am-3pm; 10kr), where Andersen
lived from 1807 to 1819. More interesting, though, is the nearby Skt.
Knud's Kirke (April-Oct Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun noon-3pm; rest of the year
Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun noon-3pm; free), whose crypt holds one of the most
unusual and ancient finds Denmark has to offer: the skeletons of King
Knud II and his brother Benedikt, both slain in 1086 by Jutish farmers
angry at the taxes Knud imposed on them - Knud was canonized soon after.
The cathedral is the only example of pure Gothic church architecture in
the country; its finely detailed sixteenth-century wooden altarpiece,
saturated with gold leaf, is one of the greatest works of the Lübeck
master, Claus Berg.
The Funen Art Gallery at Jernbanegade 13 (Tues-Sun 10am-4pm;
www.odmus.dk ; 30kr), just a few minutes' walk away, will give you a
good idea of the region's importance to the Danish art world during the
late nineteenth century, when a number of Funen-based painters abandoned
portraiture for impressionistic landscapes and studies recording the
lives of the peasantry. The collection contains some stirring works by
Vilhelm Hammershøi, P.S. Krøyer, Michael and Anne Ancher, and H.A.
Brændekilde's enormously emotive Udslidt ("worn out"). A short walk to
the east, at Claus Bergs Gade 11, is the Carl Nielsen Museum (July-Aug
Tues-Sun noon-4pm; rest of the year Thurs-Sun noon-4pm; 15kr). Born in a
village just outside Odense, Nielsen is best remembered in Denmark for
his popular songs, though it was his operas, choral pieces and
symphonies that established him as a major international composer. The
exhibits, detailing Nielsen's life and achievements, are enlivened by
the accomplished sculptures of his wife, Anne Marie, and you can listen
to some of his work on headphones.
Well worth a visit to the west of the centre is the Brandts Klædefabrik,
on Brandts Passage just off Vestergade, an old cloth-weaving factory
which now contains four museums (July-Aug daily 10am-5pm, Sept-June Tues-Sun
10am-5pm; www.brandts.dk ; 50kr for ticket to all exhibitions). In the
large halls that once housed the huge machinery are the Brandts Art
Gallery (30kr), which holds national and international exhibitions,
mostly of contemporary art, and the Museum of Photographic Art (25kr),
featuring a permanent collection of fine art photography unique in
Denmark. On the third floor the Danish Museum of Printing (25kr)
illustrates the development of the printing trade in Denmark over the
last three centuries. Further down Brandts Passage on the second floor
of no 27 is the Tidens Samling (the "Time Collection"; 25kr); it gives a
fascinating insight into the development of fashion and housing
interiors since the turn of the last century.
To the south of the Odense centre at Sejerskovvej 20 is Funen Village (April
to mid-June & mid-Aug to Oct Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; mid-June to mid-Aug
daily 9.30am-7pm; Nov-March Sun 11am-3pm; 35kr), an open-air museum made
up of a reconstructed nineteenth-century country village of original
buildings taken from all over Funen, painstakingly reassembled and
refurnished. In summer, some of the old trades are revived in the former
workshops and crafthouses, and free shows are regularly staged at the
open-air theatre. Though often crowded, it's well worth a call, and you
should watch out for the village-brewed beer, handed out free on special
occasions. Bus #42 runs to the village from the city centre (get off at
the sign Den Fynske Landsby), or you can do what the locals do and take
the Odense Åfart boat from Munke Mose (May to mid-Aug; seven times daily;
tel 65.95.79.96; 30-45kr), stopping on the way at Odense Zoo (March-April
& Sept-Oct Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 9am-6pm; May-June & Aug Mon-Fri
9am-6pm, Sat & Sun 9am-7pm; July daily 9am-7pm; Nov-March daily 9am-4pm;
www.odensezoo.dk ; 65kr).
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from $156.05
USD