Hjerl Hede is an open-air museum that is known for being a living museum in the summer and at Christmas time. At those times the museum buzzes with life from volunteers dressed in historical clothes, the steam train that drives you all the way out to the lake, the sawmill that still cuts big trees into planks, the horse-drawn carriages that take you around the museum, the grocery store that sells its sweets, and so on.
"We want to tell about the place through our volunteers, our buildings and the history of the buildings." - explains the museum's marketing manager, Ulla B. Nielsen.
For many years, the museum has run as a kind of cohesive village - something that the museum in recent years has tried to go away from. They are now trying to create cultural-historical and authentic narratives, from all the different periods that the buildings are originally from. And that is all the way back to 1546, when the oldest building - Vinkelgården - was built, and until the 1930s.
The way the museum today tries to portray the authentic stories is by recreating the stories associated with the individual buildings. Take e.g. the inn, which was originally an old village inn from Skovsgårde on Funen, from around 1750. Today the inn stands on Hjerl Hede and tells the story from 1865, when Just Peder Meyer Kreiberg and his wife Ane Kristine owned the inn. Ulla B. Nielsen explains: “We have researched the history of the inn, found out what the buildings looked like in Just and Ane Kristine's time, and thus recreated the environment and the story from their time - in this way we create the true story in all our buildings. ”
A good question
And how did all these old and cultural-historical buildings end up here, so far out on the moor? - They ended up here because of one special man - H.P. Hjerl Hansen, who at the end of the 19th century grew up in poor conditions and with a single mother. Hjerl Hansen grew up and through the industrialization he became a skilled and enterprising businessman who kept his legs on the ground and never forgot his mother's wear and tear throughout his upbringing. Therefore, he set up a museum to depict life and work in the countryside, which he could sense would quietly disappear and die out, in step with the increasing industrialization and the population searching towards the cities.
But most important for him was to give his mother a memorial - a place that could pay homage to women and the work they did - "Women's silent deed" - as it is written on the memorial stone that Hjerl Hansen had raised, not far from the museum entrance.
The many good experiences, topped off with real history
Hjerl Hede is something for everyone in the family and is full of good, funny and thoughtful stories, as well as experiences. The old buildings, the free-range chickens and geese and not at least the volunteers in historical clothes, help to set the right mood, from the moment you enter the museum. Then the authentic experience only gets bigger as you move into the historic buildings, taste the baker's delicious bread and cakes, let the children play on the historic playground, sit on the school bench from 1826, buy candy at the grocery store, play rope maker apprentice, take a trip with the steam train, which has a carriage connected, that was part of the recordings for "Olsen gang in Jutland", a famous Danish movie. And on top of a wealth of experiences, all of which are framed by some of Central Jutland's most beautiful nature, it may be necessary to rest at the museum's restaurant - Skyttegården, which is located in the middle of the entire authentic experience.
Yes, many senses come into use, on a visit to Hjerl Hede. Here the whole family can easily spend the whole day exploring the old houses, as well as the surrounding beautiful nature.
