Denmark, Jutland, Aarhus-Hojbjerg, Moesgard Museum, new exhibition buildling designed by Henning Larsen, exterior and roof

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Moesgaard Museum

Top choice in Aarhus

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Don't miss the reinvented Moesgaard Museum, 10km south of the city, housed in a spectacularly designed, award-winning modern space. The star attraction is the 2000-year-old Grauballe Man, whose astonishingly well-preserved body was found in 1952 in the village of Grauballe, 35km west of Aarhus. Aside from the Grauballe Man, the museum brings various eras (from the Stone Age to the Viking era) to life with cutting-edge archaeological and ethnographic displays.

The superb display on the Grauballe Man is part history lesson, part CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode. Was he a sacrifice to Iron Age fertility gods, an executed prisoner or simply a victim of murder? Whichever, the broken leg and the gaping neck wound suggest his death, sometime around 290 BC (give or take 50 years), was a violent one. His body and skin, tanned and preserved by the unique chemical and biological qualities of the peat bog in which he was found, are remarkably intact, right down to his hair and fingernails.

Bus 18 runs here frequently. With your own wheels, it’s a lovely drive – take Strandvejen south, then Oddervej and follow the signs.

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