5 Best Sights in Skagen, Jutland

The 19th-century Danish artist and poet Holger Drachmann (1846–1908) and his friends, including the well-known P. S. Krøyer and Michael and Anna Ancher, founded the Skagen School of painting, which sought to capture the special quality of light and idyllic seascapes here. They and their contemporaries depicted everyday life in Skagen primarily from the turn of the 20th century until the 1920s, and you can see their efforts on display in the Skagens Museum. It's a wonderful homage to this talented group of Danes, and you'll become mesmerized by some of the portraits, which seem more like a photographic collection of days gone by. The light and the landscape, however, remain the same, and it's a magical experience to recognize scenes from the paintings when you walk on the beach or in the dunes. The museum store sells posters, postcards, and other souvenirs depicting the Skagen paintings.

Denmark's most northern point is so thrashed by storms and roiling waters that the 18th-century Tilsandede Kirke, 2 km (1 mi) south of town, is covered by dunes, except for its tower.

Michael and Anna Ancher are Skagen's—if not Denmark's—most famous artist couple, and their meticulously restored 1820 home and studio, Anchers Hus, is now a museum. Old oil lamps and lace curtains decorate the parlor; the doors throughout the house were painted by Michael. Anna's studio, complete with easel, is awash in the famed Skagen light. More than 240 paintings by Michael, Anna, and their daughter, Helga, grace the walls.

At Denmark's nothern tip, the North Sea meets the Baltic Sea, and you can literally stand with each foot in a different sea. The water can be calm on one side and quite choppy on the other. Many a ship found its end here where the two seas clash, so don't go swimming in these dangerous waters.

Even more famed than the area's Sand-Buried Church is the west coast's dramatic Råbjerg Mile, a protected migrating dune that moves about 50 feet a year. You can reach it on foot from the Kandestederne.