The city of fairytales and Viking kings — where Hans Christian Andersen was born into poverty in 1805, where Denmark's finest Gothic cathedral holds the remains of the last king to claim England, and where the world's only inland Viking ship burial in Denmark was found 25km away on the shores of the Little Belt
Odense (180,000; metro 230,000) is Denmark's third-largest city on the island of Funen — the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), whose house and museum in the cobblestone quarter of the city are Denmark's most visited cultural attraction. The cathedral of Saint Canute (Skt. Knuds Domkirke, 13th–15th century) is the finest Gothic building in Denmark and contains the silver reliquary of Canute IV, who was murdered in Odense in 1086 and canonised as Denmark's only native saint. The new H.C. Andersens Hus (2021, designed by Kengo Kuma) is one of the most architecturally ambitious m…
Odense is one of the oldest cities in Denmark, with settlement since at least the 10th century — the name means 'Odin's sanctuary' (Odinsvé), suggesting pre-Christian cult significance. Canute IV (1043–1086), King of Denmark and claimant to the English throne, was murdered in the Church of Saint Albans in Odense by a mob rebelling against his plans for a renewed invasion of England — an invasion that never happened but which would have prevented William the Conqueror's dynasty from consolidating its hold. Canute was canonised in 1101 and Odense became a major medieval pilgrimage site. Hans Ch…