Where to Stay in Odense, Southern Denmark

Odense is known above all as the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, whose story is told at H.C. Andersens Hus and at his childhood home, H.C. Andersens Barndomshjem, in the old centre.

The fairy-tale writer made the city famous. Odense is also the home town of the composer Carl Nielsen, honoured at the Carl Nielsen Museet, and the seat of its municipality in the eastern part of Southern Denmark. Around the cathedral of Sankt Hans Kirke and the church of Sankt Albani Kirke the medieval core gathers, while the open-air Den Fynske Landsby and the art museum Kunstmuseum Brandts spread the city's culture across Funen.

H.C. Andersens Hus stands in the old centre of Odense, the museum of the fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen, joined nearby by his childhood home at H.C. Andersens Barndomshjem.

The Andersen sights lead the city. Sankt Hans Kirke and Sankt Albani Kirke mark the medieval core, and the friary of Gråbrødre Kloster and the church of Vor Frue Kirke stand among the old streets close by. The city keeps deep museums.

Bymuseet Møntergården holds its town history, Kunstmuseum Brandts and Fyns Kunstmuseum its art, the Carl Nielsen Museet its composer, and Danmarks Jernbanemuseum and Den Fynske Landsby the railways and rural life of Funen.

Odense grew as one of the oldest towns of Denmark, the church and market centre of the island of Funen long before it was formally chartered in the 14th century. The friary of Gråbrødre Kloster and the churches of Sankt Hans Kirke and Sankt Albani Kirke rose in the medieval town, the latter linked to the killing of a Danish king whose cult drew pilgrims to the place. Saints and kings shaped it.

Trade, the bishopric and the routes across Funen carried Odense through the centuries, and Møntergården, now Bymuseet Møntergården, keeps the long town story among the old merchant houses of the core. Then came the city's most famous son. Hans Christian Andersen was born here in poverty, his birthplace and his childhood home now the museums of H.C.

Andersens Hus and H.C. Andersens Barndomshjem, and the composer Carl Nielsen followed from the Funen countryside into the city's musical life. Industry and the railway reshaped Odense in the modern age, a story told at Danmarks Jernbanemuseum, while Den Fynske Landsby gathered the old rural buildings of Funen as the city settled into its role as the chief place of the eastern part of Southern Denmark.

Odense lies near the middle of the island of Funen, in the eastern part of Southern Denmark, in central Denmark. The city spreads inland from a stream and a canal that link it to the fjord and the sea to the north, the medieval core gathered around Sankt Hans Kirke and Sankt Albani Kirke. Funen is gentle, green country.

Beyond the built-up streets the parkland and the open-air Den Fynske Landsby give way to the farms and woods of Odense Municipality, the rolling land that the writer Hans Christian Andersen knew as a boy across this central Danish island.

Odense has the mild, damp maritime climate of central Denmark. Winters stay cool and grey rather than harsh, the sea around Funen holding deep frost and lasting snow off the low ground around the city through most of the season. Summers are warm and changeable.

The open water around the island tempers the heat and feeds the wind under the long northern daylight, while cloud and rain off the sea reach this part of Southern Denmark in every month of the year, watering the green farmland that frames Odense.

Odense sits on the main rail line across Funen, the route between the bridges that link the island to the rest of Denmark. Fast trains stop at the city station, beside Danmarks Jernbanemuseum, on the journey between the capital region and the Jutland mainland. Many arrive by motorway too.

The roads carry the traffic of Odense Municipality across Funen and over the great bridges to either side, while the airports of the wider region handle the longer journeys of travellers reaching this old cathedral city of central Denmark from abroad.