11 Best Sights in Denmark

A hit from the day it opened in 2004, this museum displays the more than 8,000 artworks dating from 1770 to the present that make up its own, impressive collection, as well as internationally known visiting exhibits. There is a café, a museum shop, and a much-Instagrammed rooftop terrace in the form of a rainbow, an artwork by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson.

Perched atop the dramatic stretch of cliffs called Helligdomsklipperne is this light-filled museum with a permanent collection mostly focused on artists with a connection to Bornholm. Though the art is beautiful, the architecture and surroundings are as much of a reason to visit. Make sure to walk down to the coast after visiting the museum; the walk from the museum to Gudhjem is one of Bornholm’s most spectacular hikes. You can get aboard the lovely MS Thor, which cruises between Gudhjem and Helligdomsklipperne in the summer months, and sail back.

A former water reservoir has been transformed into one of Copenhagen’s most popular venues for contemporary art. The exhibitions change and it can be difficult to find the entrance to the underground reservoir; check the website for information before you head out.

It might be tempting to spend the day in the sculpture garden, which is surrounded by forest and home to sculptures by Olafur Eliasson, Jeppe Hein, and Bjørn Nørgaard, but Aalborg’s museum of modern art has much more to offer. Wander through the airy, light-filled galleries and divide your time between the permanent and changing exhibitions and the building itself, an architectural masterpiece by Alvar Aalto. The café has an ambitious lunch menu and is a wonderful spot to stop for a light meal or a coffee. There's free admission to the sculpture garden, which is open 24/7, outside of the museum's opening hours.

Occupying a former textile factory, this four-story building is home to one of Denmark's best—and first—museums of art and visual culture, an educational center specializing in the same subjects, and an art bookstore with a wide range of books. National and international exhibits shown here vary widely, but there's a focus on photography and visual art.

The must-see Louisiana is a modern-art museum with fresh, temporary exhibitions and an impressive permanent collection that includes Picasso, Giacometti, and Warhol. Even if you're not an art lover, it's well worth the 30-minute trip from Copenhagen to see this beautiful combination of a 19th-century villa and modern Danish architecture, with its large sculpture garden and dramatic view of the Øresund waters. There's a children's section as well, where kids can draw and paint under the supervision of museum staff. In late August the museum is home to a literature festival with visits from some of the literary world's biggest names.

Ordrupgaard is one of the largest museum collections of French impressionism in Europe outside France itself, and it reopened in late 2020 after a major renovation. Most of the great 19th-century French artists are represented, including Manet, Monet, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Gauguin, Sisley, Delacroix, and Pissarro. Ordrupgaard also has a superb collection of Danish Golden Age painters and spectacular works by Vilhelm Hammershøi, whose deft use of light and space creates haunting settings for his mostly solitary figures. The paintings hang on the walls of what was once the home of museum founder and art collector Wilhelm Hansen. The interior of this manor, dating from 1918, has been left just as it was when Hansen and his wife Henny lived here. In 2005 a black, curvaceous addition, designed by the acclaimed Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, joined the main building. In addition to extra exhibition space, the new structure made room for a spacious café that overlooks the park. There are labels in English.

On the heath-covered grounds of this sculpture park there are 14 outdoor statues, and inside the stunning museum—designed by the sculptor and architect Rudolph Tegner himself—there are many, many more. Tegner was a controversial figure because of the monumental scale and content of his sculptures, but in recent years his art has gained more recognition. This museum is set in the middle of a wild, uncultivated part of North Zealand called Rusland (i.e., "Russia"), a name it was given due to its relative remoteness and wilderness. 

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.

Architect Søren Robert Lund was just 25 and still a student when he was awarded the commission for the ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst, which is set against the flat coast southwest of Copenhagen. ARKEN, or "the ark," which opened in 1996, is a building with a ship's features: sail-like protrusions and narrow red corridors that evoke a submarine. The museum's massive sculpture room exhibits both modern Danish and international art. The hall is narrow in one end and wider in the other to provoke illusions of space and proximity, depending on where you stand. The café, which looks like a ship's bridge, offers nice views of Køge Bugt.

The 19th-century artist Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) is buried at the center of this museum in a simple, ivy-covered tomb. Strongly influenced by the statues and reliefs of classical antiquity, Thorvaldsen is one of the world's greatest neoclassical artists, having completed commissions all over Europe. The museum, once a coach house for Christiansborg, now houses Thorvaldsen's interpretations of classical and mythological figures. A free English audio guide is available.

The museum is free on Wednesday.