In the mirror I’m wearing enormous golden pantaloons, but only I can see them. Children sit in a rock pool playing mermaids, and in the next room there’s a talking pea in a display case, beside a towering stack of mattresses. It’s the world of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), one of the 19th century’s most beloved writers. I’m in Odense, on the island of Fyn (sometimes anglicised to Funen) in the south of Denmark, to explore Andersen’s enduring legacy in his home town 150 years after his death, and to discover a few fairytales of my own.
HC Andersens Hus is the city’s museum dedicated to the writer, incorporating his first home. Niels Bjørn Friis from Museum Odense says that in earlier iterations of the museum there was little focus on Andersen’s stories. The writer’s life was explored, but The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina and The Little Mermaid were nowhere to be found. For visitors who come to Odense seeking storytelling magic, it was a little lacking.
The redesign of Odense city centre, rerouting a major road, provided the opportunity to reimagine how the city’s most famous son could be honoured. A major architecture competition awarded Japanese firm Kengo Kuma and Associates the contract, with the curators’ new approach at the core of the design. The distinctive timber-clad museum with interlinked spiralling spaces opened to great fanfare in 2021. “We’ve tried to create a space where we don’t talk about Andersen, but we talk like Andersen: with humour, irony and perspective,” says Friis. Even the gardens take this approach: “It’s a garden for wanderers and for giants, it’s designed to make you feel small,” he says, a challenge achieved by clever planting, playing with height, scale and many winding paths in a deceptively small space.
Andersen wrote two and a half autobiographies and frequently contradicted himself. HC Andersens Hus takes this approach to heart; often the views of his friends or snippets of letters are presented to gently question the author’s own version of events. “Andersen is the guide, but he’s not reliable,” says Friis. The result is a compelling whirlwind tour of Andersen’s life and art, thought processes and best-loved stories. It’s provocative and playful, for adults and children, with a bonus basement make-believe land, Ville Vau, for the youngest visitors.
Back in the real world, the small city of Odense is charming, with cobbled streets and old wooden houses painted in bright colours. The Andersen legacy is everywhere: the traffic lights feature the writer with his signature top hat, brass footprints provide a free Andersen walking tour, and there’s a sculpture trail too. Every August this dedication peaks with the annual HC Andersen festival, which celebrates the author’s legacy through art, dance, theatre and music.
This year, the week-long festival had 500 shows, most of which were free. As I explore Odense, I meet painted stilt-walkers, ghoulish monsters and an Andersen lookalike telling stories. I hear feminist spoken-word pieces and see an incredible late-night performance featuring acrobatic dancers descending from the town hall and hanging from a crane. Still to come this year are lectures, family art workshops and, expanding the storytelling legacy beyond Andersen, the city’s annual Magic Days festival.
As in most of Denmark, bikes are the best way to get about in Odense and a “cycling highway” winds through the city centre. From Hotel Odeon, I cycle to the free harbour-side swimming pool, then out of town for a loop around Stige Ø, a small island connected by causeway to the mainland. City residents picnic here after work, or enjoy a quiet hour fishing, paddleboarding or swimming.
Back in Odense, I eat at Restaurant Under Lindetræet, where the menu is inspired by Andersen themes and stories. The poem Denmark, My Native Land is featured when I visit, and proprietor Nils Palmqvist reads extracts, translated into English, as he presents each course. It’s an experience repeated often in my days in the city, the fynbo (as residents of Fyn are known) love a yarn and it feels as though storytelling is always on the menu here.
All good fairytale destinations need a castle, and Fyn boasts 123 castles and manor houses across the island. Taking day trips from Odense, I visit Egeskov Castle, Europe’s best-preserved Renaissance water castle. While much of it is open to visitors, Egeskov is also the family home of Count Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille and his wife, Princess Alexandra zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. I wonder if she can feel a pea through a stack of mattresses. The couple are often found in the vast landscaped gardens and play park chatting to visitors.
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At Valdemars Castle to the south of Fyn, I meet Louise Iuel-Brockdorff Albinus, the current owner of Valdemars Castle built between 1639 and 1644 by King Christian IV. After a family inheritance dispute that emptied the castle contents, Albinus decided to open her home to visitors and filled it with art, inviting international artists to create site-specific pieces. The juxtaposition of the high cornices and fine wallpapers with Czech artist Jiří Georg Dokoupil’s huge balloon-like sculptures and colourful bubble paintings would no doubt have amused Hans Christian Andersen, who loved to challenge expectations.
From Valdemars Castle, I catch the MS Helge, a wooden ferry built in 1924, which transports passengers around the South Fyn archipelago. This beautiful coastline was last year designated a Unesco Global Geopark for its unique “drowned” ice age landscape. I disembark in Svendborg and rent a bike from South Funen Bicycle Rental. I’m cycling today with Mette Mathiasen from Destination Fyn, who is behind the development of the 410-mile (660km) castles route around Fyn. It’s divided into 14 sections, with local operators offering luggage transfer. We’re exploring a 21-mile section, along the coast to the village of Åbyskov and Elsehoved beach. We pass turreted castles, manors and long stretches of quiet coastline, pedalling along country lanes with hedgerows overflowing with blackberries. Unlike most of Denmark, there are some hills in the south of Fyn, but with quiet trails and the option of an ebike, this is gentle, all-abilities cycling.
As dusk falls, I pedal across the moat to my last castle of the day and my final destination on Fyn – Broholm Castle. Broholm has 700 years of colourful history and plenty of ghost stories, and was a frequent haunt of Andersen, featuring in his 1837 novel Only a Fiddler. From a childhood of poverty to international acclaim, Andersen’s life was quite the adventure. Following in his footsteps on Fyn has been full of castles and colourful characters, with a few surprises too.
The trip was provided by Visit Denmark and Destination Fyn. Hotel Odeon has doubles from 1,100 kroner (£128) B&B. Broholm Castle has doubles from 1,695 kroner B&B
