Museums in the Municipality of Skanderborg

Skanderborg Museum

Since 1980, Skanderborg Museum has been housed in the town’s former courthouse, which is beautifully situated in the old part of town near the castle mound Slotsbanken and the castle chapel Slotskirken, and between the lakes Store Sø and Lille Sø.

Skanderborg Museum is an approved museum of cultural history. It covers the entire municipality, and is responsible for the area’s cultural history from ancient times, the Middle Ages and the more recent past. In addition to the museum of cultural history at Adelgade 5, the museum comprises the Monastic Museum of Denmark, which lies between the lakes Mossø and Gudensø, and the Occupation Museum, which is located in Skanderborg deer park. In addition, Skanderborg local archive and a parish archive are affiliated to the museum. 

The museum has a well-stocked shop and a café, which occupy an old merchant’s building.

Looking after local history
The museums focus on the cultural history of the municipality, which they document and preserve, and make available to local citizens and visitors and anyone else interested. For Skanderborg Museum, a knowledge of history is a prerequisite for being able to tackle future challenges and play a part in globalisation. Museum work is largely about one’s sense of the identity and relations between people.

Real-life exhibits
The museum’s permanent exhibition describes the history of the town and the local area; there are finds from a group of highly specialised hunters, who in the late Stone Age lived during the winter months on the southern shores of Skanderborg Lake and who can popularly be described as Skanderborg’s first commuters. From the Iron Age, there are exhibits from an unusually large find of weapons and other spoils which were used as sacrifices by the inhabitants of East Jutland to their god of war in a holy lake in Illerup river valley. 

From the Middle Ages there are displays about the royal Skanderborg castle and the wealthy monasteries in the area. The subsequent period is covered through descriptions of the building works, administration and life associated with the large renaissance castle Skanderborg Slot, around which the market town of Skanderborg emerged with its own special history. Finally, the toy department provides an insight into the toys that girls and boys living in both urban and rural environments played with in the 1850-1950 period.

Monastery landscape
In the Middle Ages, a number of monasteries were situated beside the central Jutland lakes and along the Gudenåen river. The most famous of these is the Cistercian monastery Øm Kloster. Visitors to the monastery ruins will find Denmark’s most thoroughly researched Middle Age monastery Cara Insula, or “The Precious Island”, but which is better known today as Øm Kloster. Written documents, numerous items and skeletons from large archaeological excavations reveal details about the monks and their pious lives, their technical know-how as well as their medicinal and writing skills. The 400-year history of the monastery is related through exhibitions and guided tours.

The Occupation
The Occupation Museum’s exhibition about the period from 1940-45 is housed in authentic surroundings in two German bunkers which at the end of the war functioned as the Luftwaffe’s administrative command centre in Denmark. This story is told in one bunker while the focus of the other is the German occupation in Skanderborg and topics such as collaboration policies, daily life, the resistance and liberation.

Museums in Ry and Gammel Rye
The Freshwater Museum in Ry describes life in and beside the lakes and rivers, especially Gudenåen. Gl. Rye Mill is a Dutch gallery mill in which a number of activities and exhibitions about Ry and the surrounding area are held.

Knowledge, inspiration and experiences
The Municipality of Skanderborg’s museums provide extensive knowledge about times and places of particular relevance to the municipality, and new information is always being added, among other things through archaeological excavations. Changing exhibitions and events draw people’s attention to topical items and subjects that involve the whole family.

Read more at:
www.skanderborgmuseum.dk
with links to other museums
in the municipality.