The new Danish Maritime Museum to open in 2013

These beautiful fighureheads will soon find an new home when the Danish Maritime Museum next year moves out of Kronborg castle in Elsinore/Helsingør to resettle in its immediate vicinity.

Work on the new museum seems to be progressing well, although one can imagine that the construction work at the old Helsingør shipyard is not without its problems.

Here is some background information on the unique and exciting new museum:

The Museum will mirror Denmark’s historical and contemporary role as one of the world’s leading maritime nations. It will be placed in a unique building that has been designed by the company of BIG Architects, and it will be placed below ground level in and around the dry dock of an old shipyard.
The new museum wants to reach out to new groups of visitors who when they leave, will have a feeling of fascination, and new knowledge gained in a serious and entertaining manner.
The Dutch exhibition architects Kossmann.dejong will be in charge of the design of the new exhibitions. In recent years, Kossmann.dejong’s exhibitions have been particularly commended for their rich use of pictures and exciting designs, and for their ability to attract new audiences who are not accustomed to museums.
Since its foundation in 1915, the Danish Maritime Museum has been located at Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. This fine building, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is, however, not the ideal setting for modern museum operations, and a potential relocation of the Museum had been discussed for years. The discussion culminated in 2003 when a report from the Danish Heritage Agency on the future of the Danish national museums, proposed moving the Danish Maritime Museum to Esbjerg and merging it with the Fisheries and Maritime Museum in order to create a strong and united maritime museum.
This idea was unpopular to many. The Museum’s subject field and collections are national and, for a major part, related to the Copenhagen area where the majority of shipping companies have their headquarters. As a result, a major study was implemented with the support of the Danish Shipowners’ Association, and the study indicated potential locations in the metropolitan area. The debate reached a positive conclusion in the autumn of 2005 with a decision that the new museum should maintain its historical attachment to Elsinore and Kronborg at the approaches to the Sound, and through this to the Baltic Sea. The Museum will be placed in Dock 1 of the former Elsinore Shipyard between Kronborg and Elsinore’s future main library and cultural centre in the old yard buildings.
The choice of location created the basis to continue a comprehensive fundraising effort, an architectural competition and clarification of the major project.
It was clear that the project was not only about relocation to a new building, but also about another weighting of the Museum’s research and information activities, so that the present time and contemporary maritime trade would take a more central place. It was also a requirement that the Museum should be designed and operated so that it would attract not only a larger number of visitors, but also a much broader user group with emphasis on young people and both sexes.
A significant asset for the Museum and its exhibitions will be the creation of unique architecture on the basis of the old dry dock from 1953 which was previously an important part of Elsinore Shipyard.

Even before the new building is opened, the Danish Maritime Museums´s existing collections at the Kronborg castle are well worth a visit!