Danish Luxury

Museums Design and history

Tirpitz

A museum cut into the dunes at Blåvand by Bjarke Ingels Group, joined to a German gun bunker of the Atlantic Wall.

Founded
2017
Company
Varde Museums
Address
Tirpitzvej 1, 6857 Blåvand

Visit tirpitz.dk

The museum cut into the dunes, seen from above
The museum cut into the dunes, seen from above
Glass facades and weathering-steel edges around the central square
Glass facades and weathering-steel edges around the central square

Pictures © Varde Museums, from tirpitz.dk.

Why it is renowned

The Guardian covered its opening in 2017 as an open, light museum set against the bunker beside it.1 Bjarke Ingels Group designed the building, sunk into the dunes around a hidden square, and the Dutch firm Tinker Imagineers designed its permanent exhibitions.12 It holds the largest collection of amber in Denmark.12

The story

In August 1944 the German occupying power began the Tirpitz Battery near Blåvand, two gun bunkers of the Atlantic Wall meant to guard the approach to Esbjerg harbour; the war ended before they were finished.3 The southern bunker has been a museum since 1991.3 In 2012 Bjarke Ingels Group was chosen to design a new museum, and it opened on 29 June 2017 with the Crown Prince at the ceremony.2 A tunnel leads from the new galleries into the bunker, whose walls are 3.5 metres of reinforced concrete.3 The Varde Museums run it.4

What to know it by

  • The Tirpitz Bunker31944Unfinished Atlantic Wall gun bunker
  • Army of Concrete4The Atlantic Wall and people who lived by it
  • West Coast Stories4The history of the Danish west coast
  • Gold of the West Coast2Denmark's largest amber collection
Sources
  1. On Denmark's Jutland coast an elegant new museum counters a Nazi monolith, The Guardian. theguardian.com, read 28 September 2026.
  2. Tirpitz Museum (Denmark), Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, read 28 September 2026.
  3. The Tirpitz Bunker, Tirpitz. tirpitz.dk, read 28 September 2026.
  4. Home - Tirpitz. tirpitz.dk, read 28 September 2026.

Checked 28 September 2026, against the maker's own pages.