Stop 4 of 11

Henner Friisers Hus

A Renaissance house in a busy ferry town

Pause before the facade and look upward. Each floor projects slightly beyond the one below, carried by visible beam ends and carved brackets. This was both skilled construction and a confident display on a prominent street in the old town.

The house was built around 1580 and is one of Middelfart's best-preserved Renaissance buildings. From 1705 to 1870 it served as an inn, welcoming travellers in a town animated by the ferry crossing. Imagine the mixture of sailors, merchants, officials and strangers passing through its rooms.

During restoration in 1927–28, well-preserved wall paintings were discovered upstairs. The house then became a museum. Its exhibitions now connect the building's own story with Middelfart's wider history, especially the relationship between the town, the Little Belt and the harbour porpoise hunt.

Good to know

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Extra background — not part of the original printed guide.

  • The museum includes a model of Middelfart as it appeared in 1801, when ferries and the waterfront were central to daily life.
  • Historically, porpoise blubber was rendered into oil for lamps; Middelfart supplied street-lighting oil to Odense until 1853.
  • A modern guild founded in Henner Friisers Hus in 1959 preserves the memory of Middelfart's former porpoise hunters rather than reviving the hunt.

On to the next stop

From Brogade, continue west through the old town and follow signs for CLAY along Kongebrovej. The historic Grimmerhus villa and museum are our next stop.

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