The 1974 street
The seventies flat and record shop.
Massimo Frasson from Italia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Massimo Frasson from Italia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Massimo Frasson from Italia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Massimo Frasson from Italia — CC BY-SA 2.0
Den Gamle By is the world's first open-air town museum (1914): seventy-five historic houses moved from across Denmark and rebuilt as a complete street — but its genius is that it is not one village but three adjacent eras you walk between: an 1864 town with its shops, a 1927 quarter with its bakery and cinema, and a 1974 street with its record shop and hippie flat. Life here is acted, not displayed: a baker genuinely baking, a smith striking, a 1927 lady ironing with a coal iron and telling you today's prices — they sell you what they make in today's currency, and entering the houses and flats is permitted as though you were a guest. The 1974 section especially strikes European visitors with complete visual nostalgia (a flat in seventies furniture with its single colour television), and the children's section dresses them in period clothes and sets them to its games. Christmas turns it a historic market in snow and lanterns — its most famous season uncontested.
The seventies flat and record shop.
A baker genuinely baking, a smith striking.
Snow and lanterns in a 19th-century town.
Viborgvej 2, 8000 Aarhus
Danish Poster MuseumDenmark's only museum devoted to the poster, inside **Den Gamle By** — the open-2 minutes walk4.4
MølleparkenThe oldest public park in Aarhus, and its smallest and most used — on the river 8 minutes walk4.5
ARoS & its Rainbow PanoramaARoS is the museum known for its roof before its collection: Your Rainbow Panora9 minutes walk4.6
Church of Our Lady, AarhusAn ordinary-looking church from outside, hiding beneath it the oldest standing s10 minutes walk4.6
Lille TorvA small square in the heart of old Aarhus, its name meaning the little square, d12 minutes walk4.4Wider and newer in idea: Copenhagen's is a rural village of farms, while Den Gamle By is a town of streets, shops and three eras including the seventies — the only one staging the twentieth century live. For those visiting just one in Denmark: this one, even if it takes the train to Aarhus.