Photo: Leif Jørgensen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Aarhus Søfartsmuseum

Volunteer-run maritime museum at the harbor of Aarhus; the collection is currently mostly in storage because of mold.

Ask the museum for opening hoursFree admission

Limited operations. Because of moisture and mold, the displayed objects are currently being moved to storage; visitors are welcome on Tuesdays at the former Molslinjen ticket office at Hveensgade 4.

About the museum

The Aarhus Søfartsmuseum emerged from the Aarhus Søhistoriske Selskab, which also gave rise to the foundation Fonden Jakob. On June 3, 2009, the museum, then still spelled "Aarhus Søfarts Museum", opened in a former terminal building in the North Harbor between Pier 3 and Pier 4. Because the harbor area was being converted into a new city district, the lease ended in 2013 and the collection had to be put into storage.

In September 2016 the museum opened provisionally in containers on Pier 3, provided by the Port of Aarhus. In 2022 moisture and mold were discovered in the collection there; since then opening hours have been irregular, and the displayed objects are being moved to storage. The former Molslinjen ticket office on Hveensgade serves as a contact point, while the board works on a permanent solution for a center for shipping, the harbor, and the bay.

The collection consists exclusively of donations from private individuals, companies, and institutions connected with the Port of Aarhus or with seafaring: rigging tools, navigation instruments, nautical charts, books, photographs, paintings, ship and harbor models, ship furnishings, and souvenirs from all over the world. The museum is run entirely by volunteers, many of them former sailors, pilots, shipbuilders, or dock workers, and publishes its own books on harbor and maritime history.