Designer Barbies, lost noses and Viking vessels: Copenhagen’s weird and wonderful museums

This article is part of a guide to Copenhagen from FT Globetrotter

Bottled body parts at the Medical Museion

Bredgade 62, 1260 Copenhagen

• Good for: A fascinating and enlightening trip through the many facets of medical history

• Not so good for: The squeamish or hungover — think embalmed body parts in jars (lots of them)

• FYI: Open Tuesday–Friday, 10am–4pm; Saturday–Sunday, noon–4pm. Adult tickets, DKr90 (about $13.50/£10). Guided tours are available

• Website; Directions

In the 18th-century, it was widely believed that birth deformities were caused by an expectant mother having a fright. It wasn’t until medical professionals began collecting and preserving foetuses and babies that this was disproved — since the same deformities occurred again and again. The very collection that sparked this medical epiphany in Denmark is displayed in Copenhagen’s Medical Museion.

Founded in 1907 and housed in an 18th-century building that was once the Royal Academy of Surgery, this small museum possesses one of the richest collections of medical artefacts in Europe. A tour through its 22 main display rooms — whose themes include pharmacy, bacteria and psychiatry — takes you on a fascinating (and often gory) march through medical history and progress.

Blood-curdling delights await, such as skull caps, original cholera intestinal water from 1853 and more than a few conjoined twins floating in preserving liquid. It is not for the faint of heart.

At the centre of the space is a late-18th-century auditorium where surgery was first taught in Denmark, and dissections of corpses were carried out to the avid attention of pipe-puffing students (to mask the rotting smell, apparently). It offers an illuminating look at how the nature of surgery has changed over the centuries. An old pharmacy displays hundreds of labelled bottles perched on rows of dark lacquered wood cabinets, and a collection of microscopes documents the instrument’s advancement from pre-1750 to today.

The museum also marks medicine’s onward stride. One exhibit that stands out is “Mind the Gut” — a thought-provoking fusion of science, art and history that tracks how doctors, patients and artists have tried to understand the complex relationship between the mind and the gut across millenia. 

Barbie Museum

Vibevej 52, 2400 Copenhagen NW

• Good for: Anyone looking for a diamanté-studded cultural-history lesson

• Not so good for: The neighbourhood, Nordvest, is slightly out of the way, though there are other places in the vicinity that merit a visit to make it worth a day trip

• FYI: Only accessible via appointment by email or phone (details on website). The tour costs DKr40 (about $6/£4.50)

• Website; Directions

I’m hemmed in on every side by fairies and princesses and celebrities. All of them poised, rather unapproachable and unfeasibly tiny-waisted. There’s a lot of pink. Yep, you guessed it, I’m at Copenhagen’s one-and-only Barbie Museum. 

In the passion project of founder and Barbie aficionado Lene Darlie Pederson, some 4,000 rare and special-edition dolls jostle for space across two floors of an apartment-turned-museum. Pederson has been building her doll collection for almost 35 years, and some date back to the 1950s and ’60s. There are the cars and kitchen set-ups of childhood dreams. Expensive, designer, collector Barbies displayed under lock and key — and not to be mistaken for “play Barbies” — such as the 007 “Bond Girls” or Bob Mackie’s collection, featuring Swarovski crystals, precious gems and velvet, and the likes of Countess Dracula or the Goddess of the Moon. Branded Barbies (shout-outs to the Harley-Davidson crew, the Burberry babes and the Coca-Cola girls lounging in an old-school diner). Celeb Barbies such as Twiggy and Marilyn Monroe.

It’s unexpectedly enjoyable and informative. Tucked away in a grey, nondescript corner of Copenhagen’s Nordvest district, the museum is a vibrant contrast to its drab surroundings. Pederson takes visitors on a personal tour through the space, pointing out particular doll histories and explaining how the craftsmanship has evolved. At the very beginning — circa late 1950s — all of Barbie’s clothes were hand-stitched in Japan, with such lavish embellishments as real fur shrugs and lace gloves, before production inevitably moved to assembly lines in cheaper countries. Tours are predominantly in Danish but there’s still much enjoyment to be had if you don’t speak the language.

I am far too old — and female-objectified aware — to be a Barbie fan, but there is still something glorious about this pink kingdom. 

Gallery of Noses, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Dantes Plads 7, 1556 Copenhagen

• Good for: Noses with a side of art

• Not so good for: The time-poor: the whole museum is vast and two to three hours is recommended for a thorough visit. If you don’t have much time, no fear, you can still get your freaky fix at the Gallery of Noses

• FYI: Open Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–5pm (until 9pm on Thursdays). Adult tickets, DKr125 (about $19/£15); free for under-18s. Free guided tours available at certain times

• Website; Directions

Hate to disappoint, but the noses on display here aren’t actually pickled but marble and plaster. In the art world of the 19th century, it was common practice to restore ancient statues, reconstructing damaged parts to make the original artefact as whole as possible. When restoration fell out of fashion, there was a scramble to remove these add-ons, leaving a graveyard of excess limbs and appendages. (Sniff out all the missing noses as you peruse the museum’s many statues.) 

Now happily housed together in a cabinet, all manner of noses — narrow, round, big, small, chipped and hooked — are there to inspect in all their glory.

And if noses don’t do it for you, the museum has many other strings to its bow. Egyptian mummies. French Impressionists. Roman artefacts. Danish paintings. Greek sculptures. An indoor winter garden. A rooftop terrace offering views of the city.

Come for the art, stay for the noses. 

The Happiness Museum

Admiralgade 19, 1066 Copenhagen

• Good for: Anyone interested in the topic or looking for a little mood-booster

• Not so good for: The museum is research-based and pretty text-heavy

• FYI: Open Wednesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm. Adult tickets, DKr110 (about $16.50/£12.50)

• Website; Directions

Can you tell the difference between a real smile and a forced one? Why is laughter contagious? How can you measure world-happiness rankings? The answers to such philosophical questions await you at Copenhagen’s Happiness Museum. 

Burrowed in the basement of a late 18th-century building in the old town, this small museum grapples with the big questions. It’s a fitting museum for Copenhagen — and indeed for Denmark — the home of hygge (cosy, comfortable contentment) and a consistent frontrunner in world happiness ratings.

Backed by science, the exhibition is curated by the Copenhagen-based Happiness Research Institute, a think-tank focused on wellbeing, happiness and quality of life. Different rooms explore happiness from various angles. A highlight is the Post-it Room, where visitors scribble their daily joys and what makes them happy (some favourites: “A good quality lawnmower and a big lawn to mow”; “Making others smile”; “Tiny dogs, good-morning kisses, riding your bike in the sunshine”).

Much of the basics are things most of us probably already know. Yet there is always something refreshing and affirming in having someone tell you that yes, spending time with loved ones is good, and no, social media not so good. And there are plenty of interesting facts and experiments you may not have heard of, like how happiness impacts the immune system (research has shown that people who report higher levels of happiness are also less likely to catch colds). We’ll leave it with Voltaire, who said: “We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one.”

Viking Ship Museum

Vindeboder 12, 4000 Roskilde

• Good for: A fun day or afternoon trip, paired with a picnic in majestic surroundings and pretending to be a Viking

• Not so good for: The museum is a 45-minute drive (or 40-minute train journey) outside Copenhagen, in Roskilde, so possibly not one for those with only a day or two to explore the city (depending how fanatical you are about Vikings, of course)

• FYI: Open daily, 10am–5pm (October 23–April 30 until 4pm). Adult tickets, DKr160 (about $24/£18). Free for under-18s. Sailing trips are an additional DKr130 (about $19.50/£15) and sold at the museum on a first-come-first-served basis; check the website for up-to-date schedules. (Some departures are sold online.) Free audio tours and various interactive ones are available 

• Website; Directions

It would be wrong to neglect Denmark’s most famous ancestors in this round-up. And while there are historic Viking spots across the nation, one of the best is the Viking Ship Museum, just outside of Copenhagen. Checking out old bits of paraphernalia through the veneer of a museum box may be cool, but it’s not as cool as setting sail on a Viking ship.

Five original, 1,000-year-old vessels stand tall and proud in the museum’s Viking Ship Hall. At some point in the 11th century, the Skuldelev Ships were deliberately sunk to form a defensive blockade in the fjord. The remains would jut out after storms or at low water, and after nosing about in the 1960s archaeologists were surprised to discover the five Viking-age ships. They were recovered, and live on in the museum, for all to gawp at in wonder.

But that’s not all. What makes this truly worthwhile is it’s said to be the only place in the world where you can look at a centuries-old warship and then step outside to see a full-scale, reconstructed one bobbing in the harbour. History is made visceral by the deep blue expanse of the Roskilde fjord stretching out into the distance, wind whipping the hair, ocean salt and wood tar filling the nostrils.

Outside, at the boatyard, shipbuilders demonstrate traditional techniques, crafting Viking vessels with the same materials and tools as the ancient seafarers. At Tunet, the Viking gathering place, warriors, blacksmiths, rope-makers and smelters illustrate other traditional crafts — and on some days, you can join workshops such as coin minting or wood carving.

Then it’s time to prepare for battle as you clamber aboard a Nordic vessel to set sail and row out to sea (OK, caveat, more likely a merchant vessel than a warship). Why simply learn about the Vikings when you can also pretend to be one?

Share your favourite Copenhagen museum experiences — the quirkier the better — in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter

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