PRESS INFORMATION
M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark
The M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark is located at the UNESCO World Heritage site in Elsinore,
just north of Copenhagen in a unique historical context adjacent to one of Denmark’s most important
historical buildings, the Kronborg Castle - also known from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
The spectacular new museum is built around an old dry dock and is designed by the internationally
renowned architecture company BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group). Follow the sloping bridges down to an
underground maritime world and experience the exhibitions in evocative and dramatic settings telling
the story of Denmark as one of the world’s leading shipping nations.
Leaving the 60 year old dock walls untouched, the galleries are placed below ground and arranged in a
continuous loop around the dry dock walls – making the dock the centerpiece of the exhibition – an
open, outdoor area where visitors experience the scale of ship building.
The architecture and exhibitions aim for new horizons, making the museum relevant, inclusive and
accessible to everyone. The architecture of the museum is iconic, guiding visitors through a continuous
flow of spaces expanding across gently sloping floors at different levels before crossing the old dock 8
meter below the level of the sea.
In 2014 the museum was highlighted on The New York Times’ prestigious ‘52 Places to Go in 2014’
list and, was declared the best cultural building on the world’s biggest architectural site archdaily.com –
on top of a whole host of other international awards and accolades amongst others a RIBA Award
2014, Architizer A + Award in the category Museum and AIANY Design Award.
About the exhibitions:
The eight different exhibitions are developed in collaboration with the exhibition designers
Kossmann.dejong from Amsterdam. The story of each exhibition is powerfully expressed in
atmospheric and dramatic surroundings with large-scale film projections and evocative soundscapes
that highlight and add perspective to the many exhibits on display.
Your visit to the museum is enhanced by interactive installations and games, where together with
others you can play and learn. The exhibitions present a fleet of merchant ships and fleet of personal
stories linked to the museum’s fantastic collections from the past four centuries – putting Danish
shipping and navigation of the past and present in the global perspective.
Through thematic highlights we’re whirled into the challenges of the oceans faced by those at sea,
through the temptations of the ports, and back home at the heart of their families. We explore the
myths of the life of the sailor, experience the role of the captain at the helm between the Danish
colonies of the 1700s, and sit behind the desk of the shipping executive conducting world trade today.
We follow the route of the many products in our supermarkets that have travelled thousands of
nautical miles to reach us.
The permanent exhibitions are supplemented by changing, thematic exhibitions and our new education
department, with activities for schoolchildren and anyone else interested in learning more about
shipping and navigation through our teaching program.
Facts about the museum and exhibitions:
 Maritime Museum of Denmark opened the 5th of October 2013 in Elsinore.
 The opening hours are:
Tuesday - Sunday 11 am – 5 pm
July and August: Every day 10 am – 5 pm
 Admission :
Adults: 110 DKK
Children under 18: free
Students and pensioners: DKK 90
 The building is designed by BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group, and has a total area of approx. 6.500 m2,
3500 of these are exhibition areas.
 The museum is divided into nine exhibitions:
Our Sailors
The Gate to the World
Aboard
Navigation and world Views
Ships of all times
In the shadow of War
Tea Time - The First Globalisation
The World in your Shopping Basket
Time Wreck
About the architecture:
Placed within an old dry dock below ground, the museum seeks to reflect Denmark's historical and
contemporary role as one of the world's leading maritime nations. By arranging the galleries in a
continuous loop around the dry dock walls, the dock becomes the centerpiece of the exhibition - an
open, outdoor area where visitors experience the size of the ship.
A series of three two level bridges span the dry dock, serving both as an urban connections, as well as
providing visitors with short-cuts to different sections of the museum. The harbor bridge closes off the
dock while serving as harbor promenade; the museum’s auditorium serves as a bridge connecting the
adjacent Culture wharf with the Kronborg Castle; and the sloping zig-zag bridge navigates visitors to
the main entrance. This bridge creates a dynamic tension between old and new as the visitors descend
into the museum space overlooking the majestic surroundings above and below ground. The long and
noble history of the Danish Maritime unfolds in a continuous motion within and around the dock, 8
metres below the ground. All floors - connecting exhibition spaces with the auditorium, classroom,
offices, café and the dock floor within the museum - slope gently creating dramatic and sculptural
spaces.
Architect and founder of BIG, Bjarke Ingels:
“Prince Hamlet’s Castle, with its fortifications, masonry, and tower skyline is one of Denmark’s greatest tourist
attractions. And due to preserving the views of the Castle’s towers we were not allowed to even stick out a meter above the
ground level. We considered it architectural suicide to fill the dry dock with program and therefore decided to empty the dry
dock and wrap it with the museum, making it the centerpiece of the exhibition. Instead of drowning the dry dock with
galleries we would leave it open. A new kind of urban space – open for new ideas and life.
David Zahle, Partner-in-Charge, BIG:
"Working for 5 years with the old concrete dock structure has been a mixture between archeology and space craft design.
The old lady is both fragile and tough; the new bridges are light and elegant. Building a museum below sea level has taken
construction techniques never used in Denmark before. The old concrete dock with its 1,5m thick walls and 2,5m thick
floor has been cut open and reassembled as a modern and precise museum facility. The steel bridges were produced in giant
sections on a Chinese steel wharf and transported to Denmark on the biggest ship that has ever docked in Elsinore. The
steel sections weigh up to 100 tons a piece and are lifted on site by the two largest mobile cranes in northern Europe. I am
truly proud of the work our team has carried out on this project and of the final result."
About BIG
BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group is a leading international partnership of architects, designers, builders and
thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development. BIG is led by
partners – Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Klok Pedersen, Finn Nørkjær, David Zahle, Jakob Lange, Thomas
Christoffersen and Managing Partners, Sheela Maini Søgaard and Kai-Uwe Bergmann – with offices in
Copenhagen and New York. In all our actions we try to move the focus from the little details to the
BIG picture. www.big.dk
Facts about the building:
Maritime Museum of Denmark is build underground around a 150 meter long dock of the yard area in
Elsinore.
461 ground anchors are drilled 42 meters into the ground to secure the floor – actually making the
museum the tallest museum in Denmark, even though it’s almost invisible from the outside.
The Maritime Museum Foundation has been pledged money from a number of funds for the
construction of the museum building. The company Maritim Museums Byg ApS is the contracter for
the construction of the building.
Architect: BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group
Exhibition Architects: Kossmann.dejong, Amsterdam
Engineering consultants: Rambøll
Total area: Approx. 6.500 m2
The following foundations have agreed to provide financial support in implementing the project:
A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation
Arbejdsmarkedets Feriefond (Labour Market Holiday Fund)
Augustinus Foundation
Dampskibsselskabet Orient's Foundation
The Danish Maritime Fund
Lauritzen Foundation
Oticon Foundation
TK Foundation
TORM's Understøttelsesfond (Employee Pension Fund)
The EAC Foundation
Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen’s Trust
Donations from the foundations was given to the Maritime Museum Foundation, which established the
Maritim Museums Byg ApS company to implement construction and exhibitions.
Facts about the museum
Protector: H.M. Queen Margrethe II.
M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark was established in 1915 and was located at Kronborg Castle in
Elsinore until December 2012.
The museum is a self-governing institution. It is an approved, national special museum for Danish
civilian maritime trade in a national and international perspective from the Middle Ages to the present
time.
The museum receives the main part of its operating income from allocations in the Budget pursuant to
Section 16 of the Danish Museum Act.
The collection including photo archive and library is Denmark's largest and most important maritime
collection.
Contact:
For further information and press photos in high resolution you are more than welcome to contact the
press and communications assistant Signe T. Lundgren from the Maritime Museum of Denmark:
T: 0045 49 28 02 01 / 24 97 73 46
M : stl@mfs.dk W : www.mfs.dk
A: M/S Museet for Søfart, Ny Kronborgvej 1, 3000 Elsinore