Christmas at Den Gamle By

Today we decided to go back to visit Den Gamle By (the old town), a collection of genuine old houses, from the 1500s to the 1800s from several places in Denmark, collected together into a living history village in Århus. They are famous for their Christmas fair and a nice old timey Christmas atmosphere.

As you can see from the first photo, it was a very popular idea. The place was crowded, with many children. I can see how this would be a very magical place for a kid at Christmas. It is not half bad for adults. Quite a few people also had their dogs, which many people seem to think of as their children.

Part of the charm and historical interest of the place are many reconstructed interiors, like this apothecary, or drug store.

An even bigger part of the charm for me are the exteriors of the buildings. Here are two photos of different parts of the façade of a half- timbered building from 1571. The first one shows you the doorway. The second one shows you a carved detail from the right hand side of the doorway.

The next photo shows some Christmas decoration on one of the main streets. Sandy just observed that one of the nice things about this place is that it is only somewhat commercialized, about enough to be self-supporting. No cartoon characters. No chain stores or restaurants. It is a bit like the Colonial Williamsburg model. Things get sold inside the appropriate stores. The exteriors are kept pretty close to their time and place in terms of decoration. The interiors tend to be of a later period, 1700s-1800s, no matter what the exterior, but they are probably using what was available. There is also quite a bit of early 20th century nostalgia in a couple of museums, like the toy museum, and exhibition spaces, like the one today that had Christmas shop windows from the 1920s-1970s.

The last photo is looking out over their reconstructed mill pond. A bit artificial but well done, and quite pretty. Living history seems to be alive and well.