Located beneath the Nordea bank in Sankt Clemens Torv, the Viking Museum may not have the grand exhibitions that the likes of ARoS and Moesgaard offer, but its central location and very cheap entrance make it worth a visit nonetheless. Run by the knowledgeable folks behind Moesgaard, the Viking Museum presents a fascinating glimpse into Aarhus’s viking past.
The majority of the exhibition is based on excavations at the very location where the museum now sits — in the old squares of central Aarhus. The Viking Museum chronicles a time more than a thousand years ago, when the Danish king at the time — Gorm the Old — entrenched Aarhus to protect it from Denmark’s German neighbours to the south. Among other things, the museum contains a model of Aros, as Aarhus was called, with its moats and ramparts, inviting for an intriguing comparison with the much-larger Aarhus of today.
With the relatively minuscule size of the exhibition, it’s easy to visit the Viking Museum spontaneously while wandering the city streets. And with the low admission, a visit is not exactly much of an investment.