Exhibitions

Exhibitions at the Viking Ship Museum

The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde is focused on ships, seafaring and boatbuilding culture in ancient and medieval times. The Viking Ship Hall is designed as a large showcase to display the five Viking ships found at Skuldelev. Besides the five original ships the hall also houses special temporary exhibitions in the West Room. Two replica ships are located in the East Room at the 'Harbour bridge' - a trading vessel and a war ship equipped with barrels, trading goods and weapons as an active part of the exhibition.

The cinema shows a film about the excavation and reconstruction of the Viking ships.

The exhibitions are communicated all over the Museum grounds.
The large collection of tradtional nordic wooden boats and Viking ship reconstructions berthed at the Museum Harbour gives an perspective to the exhibition at the Hall and helps create a image of what the Viking ships looked like a thousand years ago.
At the Boat yard the boat building tradition and culture of the Viking age are communicated through working boat builders and exhibitions showing the historical background.

As an active part of the museum you will find craftsmen working at the Museum Island and at the Archaeological Workshop, where ship finds from throughout Denmark are measured and recorded, maritime archaeology is communicated in the summer season. 

The architectural style and the exhibitions expresses a definite attitude to the historical perspective. Visitors are not led back in time - the cultural history is brought in to the present.