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Stop 5 of 11

CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark

From a widow's house to Denmark's ceramics museum

Begin with the contrast in front of you. The historic villa, Grimmerhus, rises above a modern museum complex that settles into the landscape. It is an apt home for ceramics: old forms and new ideas sharing the same ground.

Grimmerhus was built in 1857 by architect Johan Daniel Herholdt for Louise Fønss, whose husband owned nearby Hindsgavl Castle. It was intended as her future widow's residence. The building later became a summer boarding house before ceramic artists gave it an entirely different purpose.

The Museum of Ceramic Art—Grimmerhus opened here in 1994. After a major extension and refurbishment, it reopened in 2015 as CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark. Its collections connect studio ceramics, craft and design, inviting you to look closely at what happens when ordinary earth is shaped, glazed and fired.

Good to know

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Extra background — not part of the original printed guide.

  • Grimmerhus was one of Denmark's early purpose-built villas and was listed as a protected building in 1993.
  • The idea for the museum grew from Clay Today, an international symposium held by ceramic artists at Tommerup in 1990.
  • A 2010 transfer of Royal Copenhagen's historic collections to the museum helped prompt the major expansion completed in 2015.

On to the next stop

Leave CLAY heading east beside the Little Belt toward Sildemarken. Look for the old wheelhouse containing Øret i Havet—the Ear in the Sea.

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