Visit Odense Escorted Tours

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H.C. ANDERSEN CHILDHOOD HOME

With about 175,000 inhabitants, Odense is the regional capital of Funen and the third-biggest city in Denmark. The city is more than a thousand years old and various museums tell about the history of Odense and of Denmark. Odense lies within a short distance of beaches and many leisure activities are offered.

Odense celebrated its millennium anniversary in 1988 to commemorate the city's name being mentioned for the first time in a 1000 year-old letter from the German Emperor Otto III.

Odense is known as "The City of Hans Christian Andersen" and there are sites and activities related to his life and work for both children and adults.

The city centre has many pedestrian streets, wonderful shops, small cafés and restaurants, where you can enjoy life with the locals - or visit the large shopping centres, with all the heart can desire under one roof. Main sights include the Hans Christian Andersen, the Odense City Museum and the St. Knuds Cathedral.

Sights

The Funen Art Museum shows main trends in Danish art from the end of the 18th century onwards. The collection, which is one of the oldest and largest outside the Danish capital, was established in the early 1880s as a miniature version of the Danish National Museum of Fine Art. Its aim, broadly speaking, was to offer a little of everything within Danish art, sculpture and graphic work. See works by Jens Juel, C.W. Eckersberg, H.A. Brendekilde, Harald Giersing and many others. Changing special exhibitions.

Brandts is made up of Art Gallery Brandts, Museum of Photographic Art and Danish Media Museum. You will also find the only art bookshop on Fyn.

Brandts has Denmark's largest selection of exhibitions under one roof. Every year you can see app. 25 different exhibitions of Danish and international pictorial art, photograpic art and media history.

The museum gives a detailed, chronologically constructed picture of the life and work of the composer Carl Nielsen, and of his wife, the sculptress Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen.

The Cathedral, St. Knuds, was built in the 1300s. It is a Gothic cathedral with a bright, high nave. Many consider this to be the finest Gothic building in Denmark.

It is named after the king Canute the Holy, who was murdered here in 1086. His bones are on display in the crypt. King Hans and Christian II are also buried in Odense Cathedral.

The magnificent altarpiece dating from the 1500s and carved by Claus Berg is well worth examining in detail.

The tour starts at 11 am from VisitOdense and continues through the streets and alleys of Odense exploring the very surroundings that constitute the origins of Hans Christian Andersen. Tickets cost 50,00 DKK for adults and 25,00 DKK for children.

Get the stories about the writer's childhood experiences - e.g. how he used to play with the crown prince in the castle yard - and just as important, learn what the world looked like when Hans Christian Andersen lived.

Luckily, in spite of 200 years drastic development in Odense, it is still possible to see manny of the original buildings where Hans Christian Andersen had his comings and goings.

Here you can lose yourself in 10.000 m2 of rail technology, experiences, discoveries, games and nostalgia. The museum exhibits 150 years of trains and ferries. Look in on the grandest private saloon carriage or take a seat on the wooden benches of a third class compartment. Cross Funen in the drivers seat of a large locomotive. The tables are set in the blue Wagons-Lits restaurant car, and the majestic Royal carriages are ready... Here you will also find buses, model railways, mini trains, play areas and an attractive shop.