Silkeborg Museum

Silkeborg Museum has changed its name to Museum Silkeborg and is a museum of Danish cultural history with official state recognition. Museum Silkeborg is located at three different addresses: The Manor House and the Paper Mill Museum in Silkeborg and Blicheregnen in the village of Thorning.

Hovedgården (The Manor House)

Silkeborg Hovedgård was built between 1767 and 1770 by Rittmeister Hans Nicolai Hoff after he had acquired Silkeborg Castle, whose buildings had fallen into despair. From 1846, a room in the building was used as a chapel for workers at the new Silkeborg Paper Factory and later the building was used as a post office.

Silkeborg Hovedgård came back into private ownership in 1906 before it was acquired by Silkeborg Municipality in 1939.

The museum was founded in 1904 and is home to the Tollund Man, one of the most well-preserved naturally mummified Pre-Roman Iron Age bog bodies found in Denmark. Other exhibitions cover the Viking Age, Middle Ages, Silkeborg Castle, Silkeborg as a forested region and a collection of antique glass and local pottery.

The Paper Mill

The Paper Mill was once important to the whole nation as the paper for money bills was manufactured at the mill until 1992. The Paper Mill was founded in 1844-1845 and is inseparable from the beginning of Silkeborg.

Today you can visit the museum and try for yourself how to make paper.

Blicheregnen

At Blicheregnen, the permanent exhibitions tell about famous poet and parson Steen Steensen Blicher and about country life in general during the 19th century. Blicher grew up in the parish next to the museum, and he was parson in Thorning from 1819 to 1825 where he wrote one of his most famous novels. Throughout the year there are different special exhibitions at the museum. The museum also tells the story about the end of the civil war in the 12th century, which took place nearby the museum on Grathe Hede (Grathe Moor), where one of the Danish kings was killed.