Stop 7 of 11

Lillebæltværftet

A boatbuilding tradition kept at work

This is a museum where the tools still have jobs to do. Lillebæltværftet is an active shipyard devoted to wooden boats, local coastal culture and the practical knowledge required to keep both alive.

A boatyard was founded on this site by Mads Illum Pedersen in 1855. His workers built more than 500 dinghies between 1855 and 1903 and developed a distinctive local type, the Illum or Middelfart dinghy, with a slender hull, broad bow and narrow stern.

Today volunteers and professional craftspeople maintain, restore and build vessels here. Look for overlapping hull planks: the clinker method has been used in Nordic boatbuilding for more than two millennia and was added to UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2021.

Good to know

Extra background — not part of the original printed guide.

The Lillebæltværftet association took over the shipyard in 1998 and runs it as a museum environment as well as a place of work.
In clinker construction, each hull plank overlaps the one below and is fastened to it; in carvel construction, planks meet edge to edge.
Several traditional boat associations use the yard's facilities for maintenance, restoration and new construction.

On to the next stop

Continue east toward the Old Harbour, but before entering the basin, look up toward Gl. Vestergade. The planted terraces on the slope are the Hanging Gardens.

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