Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Carl Jacobsen, who ran the Carlsberg brewery, spent decades buying sculpture and antiquities and gave the collection to the city, and the museum opened in stages from 1897. Its centre is the Winter Garden, a glazed dome over palms, a fountain and stone floors, which functions as the museum's living room and is where most visitors end up sitting. Around it are two very different halves: a large collection of Mediterranean antiquities, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and above all Roman portrait busts, of which the Roman group is one of the strongest anywhere outside Italy, and a nineteenth-century French and Danish collection with a substantial holding of Rodin, Degas bronzes including the full set of dancers, and Gauguin from the years his Danish wife's family kept the works.

What you actually see

• The Winter Garden - a glazed dome over palms and a fountain.
• Roman portrait busts - one of the great collections of Roman likenesses.
• Degas bronzes - the complete series of dancers and bathers.
• Gauguin paintings - works that came through his Danish family connection.

When to go

Year round; it is an indoor museum and works particularly well on a wet Copenhagen day. Two to three hours. Closed Mondays. The Winter Garden cafe is busiest at lunchtime.

Honest expectations

It is large and the two halves feel like separate museums, which can be disorienting. Some antiquities galleries are dimly lit. The building has many small level changes and older wings are less accessible. The cafe is expensive even by Copenhagen standards.

Nearby

Tivoli Gardens is across the road; the National Museum is a short walk.