Den Gamle By Museum in Aarhus – Worth it?

The old town – Danish “Den Gamle By” is an open air museum with city houses through the ages from all over Denmark. When you are interested in how people lived throughout the centuries and how Aarhus evolved from a small settlement to the city it is today, this is the place to visit. Den Gamle By Museum in Aarhus is designed as a small village inside of the main city with the houses ranging from the 1600s to 2014.

You walk around the museum almost in a circle, going through the ages, starting in the modern era, going back through the centuries until 1600 and ending back up in the 1970s.

Is Den Gamle By Museum in Aarhus worth the high admission ticket price? TLDR here

What is the open-air museum all about?

Of course it’s not just the outside of the houses that is shown, but insides as well. You can see how different a tailor family (1-2) and a merchant family (4-6) lived around 1864, a myriad of people and families in a row-house in the city in 1972 (next gallery) and compare it to a 2014 rainbow family home (3).

Within the row-house from the 1970s six apartements and a amateur radio station are displayed:

• A pensioner couple (1-2)
• A single mother and her teenage son (3-4)
• 6 Turkish migrant workers (5-6)
• A teacher couple (7-8)
• A hippie couple with their infant daughter (9-10)
• A student from Greenland (11)
• An amateur radio station next to the attic used to dry clothes (12)

There are also many shops in the museum. Some of them are interior-only, like the brewery, the spinning factory, the tailor, the hatter, etc. Some others, like the old pharmacy have life sized video projections of people from that time who tell you about different topics at the push of a button.

But some others are brought to life by people dressed up and acting in character. Here you have a merchant store and an iron monger from 1864, a bakery where they still sell baked good made from recipes from the 1880s (1-3), a general goods mini-market (4), a paint store, an embroidery store and a radio store from the 1970 (5).

We bought two baked goods from the old timey bakery (3), a coffee bread (old bread slathered in butter and baked with cinnamon and sugar) and a vanilla cookie ring.

Museums inside Den Gamle By

Inside the open-air-museum are several more, smaller, museums. The most extensive is the history of Aarhus as a city. All of these smaller museums and exhibitions are included in the cost of the ticket.

History of Aarhus Museum – 1200 years of city history

An elevator in one of the 1970s houses takes you into the basement, where 800 square meters of exhibition cover the history of the city Aarhus. From the first settlement to the modern day. The museum education is done with great love to detail, with many interactive displays and opportunities to immerse yourself into the different millennia.

Jewellery Museum

The Jewellery Museum shows off 100 years of Danish jewellery design and crafting. Alongside the displayed pieces is a look, presented on a female model, with the most trendy hair, outfit and jewellery from the mentioned times.

Clock Museum

Behind the city history museum is the clock museum, where you can see historical clocks, pocket– and wristwatches, grandfather clocks and other timepieces from all over Denmark. In the middle is a round table where many pocket watches are displayed, on top of the table are two magnifying glasses in the shape of clock arms you can move around to see the small details.

Silverware and Porcelain Museum

Primarily the exhibition of mostly everyday objects mainly covers Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein (the most northern province of Germany), but also includes several artifacts from other northern European countries – and explains how a lot of the porcelain actually came from the Far East. These exhibits give a good overview of everyday life of the middle classes through the centuries.

Placards/poster Museum

The poster museum has changing exhibitions, when I was there the topic was travel and tourism, both Danish and international.

On the top floor some of the most popular Danish posters from 1900 to 2008 are on display.

Another one is the toy museum, with 5.000+ from over the centuries. But it was so dark inside that I did not take any pictures.

And a 1900s local history museum Museum. Literally a Museum of how a typical local history museum used to look like around 1900.

Events at Den Gamle By Museum in Aarhus

We were there the weekend before Easter, when the Easter events at Den Gamle By Museum in Aarhus had already started. At the entrance everyone got a map of the premises, with many special showings of Danish Easter traditions (like decorating eggs or colouring them) by people dressed up in century appropriate attire and interactive stations for children and kids-at-heart. At certain places you could get your map stamped, get a sticker, a wax seal or draw on it with an old ink pen.

They have an overview of all events on their website here.

Facts, prices and opening times of Den Gamle By Museum Aarhus

Address: Viborgvej 2, 8000 Aarhus C

Opening Times: 365 days a year. From January to the start of April from 10 AM to 4 PM, from April to December from 10 AM to 5 PM (on the weekends to 5 PM already from February).

Ticket prices: Adult 195 DKK (~26€), Student 95 DKK (~12,5€), children free.

When you buy your ticket online you save 10 DKK per person and you can skip the line.

Is the ticket to the Den Gamble By Museum in Aarhus worth the money?

Yes! To properly see everything within the museum grounds you will need 4-5 hours. And you get the open-air museum (including the insides of the houses) and 7 special exhibitions, as big as some smaller museums, all in one ticket.

The museum is incredibly interactive and well designed, from the outside to the smaller exhibits. And even with all the pictures in the post you have barely seen anything of the museum!

In my opinion the old town / den Gamle By is the best museum in Aarhus by a wide margin.