Travelling with MM: Roskilde Viking Museum

19 July 2017

Roskilde Viking Museum

We Travelled:270km to Roskilde then Ribe

Visited: Roskilde Viking Museum 130kr each

Stay: Ribe free parking 55.3300 8.7713

We arrived in Roskilde just afte 8am and parked at the museum. It appeared that a few Motorhomes had stayed overnight. We had a bit of time before the 10am opening time at the museum so we went for a stroll into town. This had once been the capital of Denmark, which was reflected in it's amazing brick cathedral. Originally built in 1170, it has had many additions over a 800 year period and contains the crypts of 37 Danish kings and queens.

There are so many museums in Scandinavia dedicated to the Viking era and each seems focused on their local history. The museum in Roskilde is about 5 Viking ships that were discovered in the fjord and excavated in 1962. It appears that in 1070 the ships were deliberately sunk in order to block the most important fairway to protect the city. The were 5 different vessels and it took 25 years for the 100,000 pieces to be mounted on metal frames to showcase them.

Each ship has subsequently been reconstructed using original methods in the adjoining shipyard, which are now available for seavoyages around the fjord. We spent 4-5 hours looking at the exhibits and joining talking tours, learning about the discovery, preserving and the reconstruction of these vessels.

A decommissioned ship built 35 years ago, due to the iron nails rusting, new vessel will have copper nails instead.

They are weaving sails from flax. Viking used to make sales from wool and although they were very durable, the larger vessels required large sails which ended up being too heavy.