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Taste, smell and experience history

From Easter to 30th December it is possible to experience Living History to a varied extent. In The Old Town, Living History consists of activities where people in period costumes re-enact history to make it come alive. The keywords in Living History are imagination, sense-influence, activity and human contact.
Have a chat with the shoemaker's wife or let the boatswain ferry you across the harbour in our ferry. Come and meet our organ grinder, shop-apprentice's, the town drummer and the many other characters of yesteryear's market towns. Pat the horses and talk with the chickens in our historical surroundings.
Drop in on the kitchen maid boiling up a soup over the open hearth in the Merchant's House and pay a visit to the housewife in Havbogade roasting pork in her wrought iron-stove.
Come in and have a taste!

The homes
There are four homes in the museum’s historical houses. Three of the homes have working kitchens, while the fourth home is part of an almshouse for middle-class widows and spinsters.
In the Eilschou Almshouses the clergyman’s widow and the spinster are pleased to receive visitors in their home, and more than willing to talk about Hans Christian Andersen’s visits to their home in the beginning of the 19th century, and about the almshouse itself where middle-class widows and spinsters could live without paying rent. The clergyman’s widow and the spinster belong to 1833.

The three working kitchens illustrate the greatest revolution in the history of modern cookery, namely the transition from the open hearth to the wrought iron stove.With the stove came the oven, and with it the possibly to prepare, what for the period were wholly new dishes, some of which are classics for us in our day; f.eks roast pork, various pastries and cakes. The Old Towns three historical kitchens have been adapted as two open-hearth's and one wrought iron-stove's kitchen respectively.
At the home of the shoemaker’s wife, visitors can sample Danish bread porridge with salted herrings, which was a common breakfast in 1833.
The kitchen maid in the Merchant's House from 1864 brew's coffee and cooks various dishes, and if you manage to come at just the right time, you can be lucky enough to try a taste of her cabbage or butter-milk soup's. You might also meet the yard-hand in the kitchen; who sees to the firewood for the kitchens. The maid pumps water her-self from the pump in the yard.
In Havbogade you can meet the housewife in her home portrayed in the period around 1910. She cooks on her stove and warmly welcomes the guests that might make their way to her door. If you are lucky you might taste her porridge or roast pork with parsley-sauce. You might also run into the yard-hand here as well, as he sees to it that there's enough firewood to the stove.

Recipes can be found right here.

The shops
The shop-apprentice can be found in the merchant's grocery and wholesale store. We are in the year 1864, and the shop apprentice sells and tells of goods from the period
The Baker’s shop sell cakes and bread made from old recipes. As we are in 1885, the Baker’s tempts us with sugared pretzels, various cookies, soft rolls and much more.
The Book shop and its clerk date to 1927 selling all sorts of book and paper articles.
The Ironmonger’s also belongs to 1927 and sells everything from blue tacks to porcelain from Bing & Grøndahl.
Depending on the season one can also visit the market garden, The Tobaconist, The Post office and our stalls.

The streets
As a natural part of the market town's street life you can experience a range of characters. Such as the organ grinder or the town's drummer of the 1860s informing the citizens and guests to the town of activities and good-offers, not to mention the farmhand and the baker rushing along and the vicar preaching the words of the day. In the harbour is The Old Town’s rope ferry, ready to ferry visitors across the harbour. The boatman will always lend a helping hand when it is needed. At the Fairground, amusements such as swing boats, the merry-go-round, the try-your-strength machine and old-fashioned playthings can be enjoyed to the strains of the mechanical organ.

The Living workshops
If you’re lucky, you can meet some of the working men of the town. You can visit the smith in his dark forge where he, among other things, forges large nails which are used in the town. You can sometimes find the cooper and carver working in his small workshop on Vestergade where he makes barrels, buckets, and delicate carvings. You can also visit the brewery which makes the beer which the people of the town drink every day.

The animals
The horses pulling The Old Town's hackney carriage are stabled in the Merchant's House's yard. If you're lucky you might also meet the yard's cats, whilst the chicken's can be found in their chicken run by the house in Havbogade.

Program changes can occur