The Freshwater Museum in Ry

Ry is home to Denmark’s only freshwater museum, which presents the natural and cultural history of the local fresh waters. Its exhibitions are located in a beautiful wooden building on Siimtoften, near Ry Marina. The idea of establishing a freshwater museum in Ry goes back to the 1950s, when a broad conceptual view of our fresh waters was formulated. This conceptual framework formed the basis of the museum, and the first exhibition building was constructed in 1986. In 1990 the Freshwater Museum became an independent institution.

At the Freshwater Museum, aquariums, displays and posters depict the highly varied flora and fauna of the fresh waters. Exhibitions feature birds, bats and mammals, e.g. otters, minks and beavers, and two aquariums provide visitors with the experience of seeing a variety of predatory as well as non-predatory freshwater fish species.

The many lakes and streams have shaped the lives of the people who have lived here through the ages: From Stone Age hunters and fishers, Vikings who built bridges, medieval monks who mastered the skills of

constructing dams and water mills, fishermen who used specialised tools, right up to the canoeists and leisure boaters of today.

Over the years, the Freshwater Museum has collected a number of boats, poles and planks from bridges and bulwarks, fishing tackle etc. illustrating the bygone lifestyles of the Danish Lake District. The boat collection, which includes treasures such as a stretched dug-out from around 500 AD, a 17th-century dug-out (‘knobskib’ in the local Danish dialect) as well as a dozen other wooden boats, is unfortunately not currently on display but kept in the museum’s storerooms due to limited exhibition space.

In 2001, the Freshwater Museum purchased the former tourist boat M/S Turisten, which had sailed tourists between Ry and Himmelbjerget since 1922. As a museum ship, it has been renamed ‘Gl. Turisten’ and is used for educational trips focusing on such topics as the birds and mammals, the geology and the landscape of the Danish Lake District.

Every summer, the Freshwater Museum organises guided walks in the countryside around Ry. Also, during the summer and autumn school holidays, special theme days are held at the Freshwater Museum, where the museum’s nature guide presents interesting finds.