10 Best Museums in Aarhus

Take a trip back in time to the time of the pharaohs in Egypt, around 3,000 BC, and experience a genuine mummy, casts of statues of the pharaohs and other Middle Eastern items at the Museum of Ancient Art. On your way back to modern times, you can disembark in ancient Greece, around 900 BC, where you can admire plaster casts of the world’s most famous Greek sculptures, study coins which have been in the pockets of Roman legionnaires and explore the 4,000 original items from the Mediterranean area.

To say the least, the Museum of Ancient Art is home to many different artefacts that can be explored – both by actual artists and regular museum guests.

With its nine million annual visitors, ARoS is the most visited museum in Scandinavia and one of the largest in the Nordic countries – it also has the largest collection of art in Denmark outside the capital city area. The popular art museum is full of artistic details, from the basement to the attic, and the numerous exhibitions include everything from the traditional to the modern and the extremely unusual exhibitions.

One of ARoS’ particularly popular works of art is Boy, a 15-foot-tall and 500-kg sculpture of a very realistic boy – if you disregard its size. A visit to ARoS is not complete without a trip to the rainbow on the roof, where you can enjoy a panoramic view of Aarhus in splashing colours.

The Old Town Museum (Den Gamle By) is a unique attraction, which invites the whole family on a fascinating trip back in time to the city of Aarhus as it was in 1864, 1927 and 1974. This museum has preserved the oldest townhouses and streets in Aarhus and recreated shops, gardens, workshops, etc., so as to provide an authentic experience of having stepped back in time.

Explore the old half-timbered houses, allow yourself to be enticed by the smell of freshly-baked crullers and follow the sound of hooves as horses pull wagons through the Old Town Museum, directed by their well-dressed drivers. When you move around the cobblestone streets, you'll meet people who are dressed and who act like people from that time.

Moesgaard Museum invites guests of all ages to exciting ethnographic and anthropologic exhibitions. For example, visit Moesgaard Museum’s crown jewel, the Grauballe Man (Grauballemanden), which is the world’s best preserved bog body. He was discovered in 1952, and researchers estimate that he has been lying in the bog since the Iron Age. The Grauballe Man is so well preserved that his facial expression is clearly visible, and you can even make out his two-week-old stubble, which matches his strong red hair.

The museum is surrounded by gorgeous nature, and the building’s architectonic shape allows you to walk up the slanted, grass-covered roof, from where you have an enchanting view of green fields, endless forests and the distant sea.

KØN – Gender Museum Denmark was founded in 1982, and it's based in the old town hall building from 1857. The museum is one of the few in the world focusing on gender differences from a cultural historic perspective, and it discusses subjects like sexual discrimination, equality and sexuality. However, the museum has shifted its focus with the times, and today it focuses just as much on gender culture from a broader perspective – regardless of sexual orientation.

More specifically, you can visit KØN – Gender Museum Denmark in Aarhus and gain insight into the different genders’ cultural history (which is not limited to men and women) and the development of sexual education through time as well as knowledge of how the discussions on gender have affected and still affect our society.

At Steno Museum in Aarhus, you can learn about the wonders of natural science and astronomy, and you can immerse yourself in the cultural history of medical science. The museum, which is located in the beautiful University Park, in walking distance from the centre of Aarhus, offers interactive and educational exhibitions for people of all ages. The large planetarium at Steno Museum displays realistic representations of galaxies, stars and astronomical phenomena, so lean back under the endless dome and learn more about the planets in our solar system.

You can also take your family for a walk in Steno Museum’s colourful garden, where you can find more than 300 medicinal plants. The museum is free for children and young people under 18, while adults have to pay a small entrance fee.

Visit the Occupation Museum and experience Aarhus during World War II. A year after the war swept over Europe, German troops occupied the capital of Jutland in 1940. For five years, until 1945, Aarhus was under German control, which was not only disheartening, but it put a stop to the freedom of local people to express themselves and to move freely in their own town.

The Occupation Museum in Aarhus portrays this period’s dramatic events, including all the German restrictions, nationalism, propaganda and the resistance movement. The museum is located in the former town hall building and police station, which during the war, was the headquarters of the German secret police, the Gestapo.

Museum Ovartaci is a different museum, which combines art and psychiatry. Here, visitors can learn about the history of psychiatric treatment methods from around 1850 and through history. The exhibition also includes some of the equipment that was used.

The unique aspect of the museum is, however, the very special art exhibit, which shows paintings and other art objects made by psychiatric patients who were or are hospitalised at the psychiatric hospital in Aarhus. Through art, visitors can gain a deeper insight into the human psyche and thus a better understanding of mental health. The purpose of the museum is to respond to some of the prejudices that exist about mental conditions and to eliminate any taboos when talking about mental illness.

At the Ole Rømer Observatory, you can study the endless and fascinating stars from the observatory’s large dome trough 11-inch telescopes. The observatory, which is named after the old astronomer, Ole Rømer, is located in a historic building from 1911 near the Marselisborg Forests.

During the dark autumn and winter evenings, you can attend presentations and learn more about our solar system’s planets, the stars and the galaxies. If the weather and sky are clear, you can study the stars and planets through large telescopes, under the guidance of the skilled staff at the observatory.