Denmark

A few kilometres south of Copenhagen, the spectacularly beautiful avantgarde design of the "Arken" (Museum... of Modern Art) is located: the "Arken" looks as if it had just landed on Ishøj beach. The museum focuses on contemporary art after 1945 - Danish, Nordic and also international art. The collection includes all genres, from paintings to sculptures and photography as well as video installations. The permanent and special exhibitions are not the only things worth seeing, as the building's architecture is alone worth a visit. The museum building is situated right in the middle of the sand dunes at Øresund, where it lays just like a giant ship's hull. Especially when viewed from the outside, the architect Søren Robert Lund clearly succeeded in creating the impression of an ark. The main element in the museum's interior is an approximately 150 m (492 ft) long axis of arts, with smaller exhibition rooms and galleries leading off from it. You can enjoy a lovely view across the beach and water from the museum café. more

Museums often tell the story of victories and major successes in politics, the military world and art.... This Workers' Museum is quite different: it dedicates its four exhibitions to the minor, hard-won successes of the working class. You can learn much about class struggle and state repression. The miserable housing, working and living conditions as well as child labour, the early beginnings of the trade union movement, police espionage and incarcerations are explained in detail here. In particular, the small, original apartment of the Sørensen family, whose life is featured over three generations, visually displays the oppressive misery and poverty of the working classes. The large hall in the rear part of the building was at the heart of Copenhagen's organized workers' association for many decades. Important socialist leaders and communists appeared here, from August Bebel to Wilhelm Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg to Clara Zetkin. more

The cathedral in classicist style was inaugurated in 1829. The 60-meter-tall tower is home to Denmark's... largest bell, weighing in at four tons. The cathedral's smallest bell is from the year 1490 and is also the country's oldest. Thousands of people cheered when the Danish prince and the Australian native Mary Donaldson got married on May 14 2004 at the cathedral. Larger-than-life statues of the twelve apostles adorn the light church room, which was created by Bertel Throvaldsen. It shows Jesus blessing, not crucified, a revolutinary depiction of Christ back in those days. more