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 The museum's 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 Lonely Planet puts it first among the top things to do in and around Odense, for Kengo Kuma's wooden pavilions, gardens and underground galleries and the paper cuttings by Andersen on show.⁴

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 round pavilions of glass and latticed timber under 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.⁵²

What to know it by

• Andersen's Birthplace³1799The yellow corner house where he was born in 1805
• Memorial Hall³1930Hall built onto the birthplace
• The Kengo Kuma museum²2021Kengo Kuma and AssociatesPavilions of timber and glass under green roofs
• H.C. Andersen's Childhood Home²Half-timbered house on Munkemøllestræde, a museum since 1930