H.C. Andersens Hus

Why it is renowned

Andersen's 156 fairy tales, among them The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and The Snow Queen, have been translated into more than 125 languages.¹ Its new building came out of an international competition won in 2016 by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and the museum designers Event Communications.² The English audio guide was written by Lemony Snicket.³

The story

Andersen was born in Odense on 2 April 1805, in a small yellow corner house on Hans Jensens Stræde built in 1799.³ The house has been part of his museum since 1908, and a Memorial Hall was added in 1930.³ Kengo Kuma and Associates designed the present museum, a group of low timber-and-glass pavilions with green roofs set in a garden, which opened in the summer of 2021.³² It shows original objects, paper cuttings and drawings by Andersen, and a Fairy Tale Garden with eleven of his best-known tales.³ His childhood home on Munkemøllestræde, where he lived from the age of two to fourteen, is a five-minute walk away and belongs to the same museum.⁴²

What to know it by

• Andersen's Birthplace1799The yellow corner house where he was born in 1805
• Memorial Hall1930Hall built onto the birthplace
• The Kengo Kuma museum2021Kengo Kuma and AssociatesPavilions of timber and glass under green roofs
• H.C. Andersen's Childhood HomeHalf-timbered house on Munkemøllestræde, a museum since 1930