Brandts

Odense


This sprawling arts centre occupies a beautifully converted 1887 textile mill. Most of the gallery space is used for well-curated, frequently changing modern-art exhibitions, but at least two rooms display highlights of the Brandts Samling permanent collection, tracing 250 years of Danish art.

Highlights from the classical period include HA Brendekilde’s powerful Udslidt (Worn Out; 1889), depicting a collapsed farm worker. The excellent Dansk Modernisme section includes Olaf Rude's take on Cubism, Karl Isakson's impressionism and Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen apparently aping Miró. On the 3rd floor, the fascinating if very Denmark-specific Mediemuseum traces the development of the press.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Odense attractions

1. Mediemuseum

Tracing the role of the media in our lives from X Factor to the monastic scriptorium, most of this excellent museum is in Danish and has a Denmark…

2. Brandts 13

0.04 MILES

In a stately, porticoed building from 1884, this airy gallery presents regularly changing contemporary art exhibitions, a lot of them multimedia which…

3. Stoppenålen

0.16 MILES

These two shaped-stone pillars look provocatively sexual, but are supposed to represent the proud if hapless 'darning needle' that's the antihero of Hans…

4. HC Andersens Barndomshjem

0.27 MILES

The small childhood home of Hans Christian Andersen paints a picture of the writer's poverty-stricken childhood. He lived here from 1807 to 1819, aged two…

5. Oceania

0.28 MILES

With a classical face, seal-flipper feet and a triumphalist six-pack tummy, this astonishing female figure reclines naked on Odense's central square. But…

6. Odense Domkirke

0.31 MILES

A feast of whitewashed Gothic arches and vaulting, Odense’s imposing cathedral took 200 years to build (1300–1499) with the tower added in the 1580s.

7. Sankt Hans Kirke

0.34 MILES

Though most of the triple-transept brick structure you see today dates from 1880, there has been a church on this spot since before 1295, and for much of…

8. Børnekulturhuset Fyrtøjet

0.39 MILES

In the charming Fyrtøjet, children are encouraged to explore the world of Hans Christian Andersen through music and storytelling.