Trapholt

Trapholt stands on a slope above Kolding Fjord and holds Danish art from about 1900 onward, applied art and craft, and a large furniture collection, which is the part that makes it distinctive: it is one of the few museums in Denmark devoted seriously to twentieth-century furniture design, with chairs, tables and lighting shown as design history rather than as props. In the grounds stands Arne Jacobsen's Kubeflex summer house of 1970, a prototype modular holiday house of cube units that was never put into production, moved here and furnished as he intended. The building itself, extended several times, steps down the slope with a sculpture garden and a landscaped terrace looking over the fjord.

History

Trapholt opened in 1988 as an art museum and later shortened its name as it broadened into a museum of modern painting, crafts, design and furniture. In 1996 it was extended for its collection of Danish furniture design, with more than 500 chairs of the 20th century, the largest in the country, in a spiral wing inspired by the Guggenheim Museum; it also holds crafts, mainly ceramics and textiles, a permanent display of paintings by Richard Mortensen, and a sculpture park with works by Ingvar Cronhammar, Bjørn Nørgaard and others. Arne Jacobsen's Kubeflex modular summer house of 1969-70, never put into production after his death in 1971 and furnished with his own designs, was the Jacobsen family's summer house until 2002 and was moved here in 2005 (Wikipedia, Trapholt).

Highlights

• The furniture collection - twentieth-century Danish design as history.
• Jacobsen's Kubeflex house - a modular prototype summer house in the grounds.
• Danish art from 1900 - painting and sculpture in the main galleries.
• The sculpture garden - the slope above Kolding Fjord.

When to go

Year round. Two to three hours. Closed Mondays outside high season. The garden and the Kubeflex house are best in the warmer months. Temporary exhibitions change several times a year.

Things to know

It is outside the town centre and needs a bus or car. The Kubeflex house has limited opening and small groups. The art collection is regional and largely Danish. The cafe is expensive.

Nearby

Koldinghus is in the town centre; Fredericia lies north-east.

Key facts