Ærøskøbing Bymuseum • Ærø Museum

An island story in a sheriff’s house

Ærøskøbing Bymuseum is housed in an elegant former sheriff’s residence dating from 1775, set just off the cobbled streets of the town’s old centre. Crossing the threshold, you step into the administrative heart of Ærø as it looked when the island was governed from this very building. The creak of wooden floors, low ceilings and painted doors immediately evoke a time when officials, clerks and islanders passed through with petitions, disputes and news from the sea. The museum uses the house itself as its main artefact. Staircases, panelled rooms and original details tell a parallel story to the displays, revealing how a prosperous 18th‑century official family on a small Danish island chose to live and work.

Between duchy and kingdom

Exhibitions inside delve into Ærø’s unusual political and cultural history as a borderland between the Danish kingdom and the former Schleswig duchies. Maps, documents and coins trace shifting allegiances and complicated administrations that shaped local identity over centuries. You see how customs rules, taxes and changing rulers affected everything from shipping routes to schoolbooks. Language and habits differed from one end of the island to the other. Display panels and sound snippets highlight Western and Eastern Ærø dialects, showing ties to Als, Funen, Langeland and Lolland, and explaining how geography and politics left marks on the way people spoke and cooked.

Sea routes and everyday work

Maritime life runs like a thread through the museum. Models, navigation instruments and trade goods illustrate how Ærø’s sailors connected the island to harbours across the Baltic and beyond. Weights, measures and imported objects hint at the bustling small‑scale commerce that supported the island’s farms and workshops. Alongside seafaring, the museum pays close attention to everyday existence on shore. Tools, clothing and domestic utensils sketch out lives shaped by seasonal labour, church festivals and the rhythms of fishing and farming. Carefully staged interiors suggest how island homes were furnished around 1900, from painted chests to tiled stoves.

The protected building and its transformations

The house at Brogade 3–5 reflects its changing roles over time. After its first sheriff, Johan Heinrich Prehn, it hosted a succession of officials and functions, including periods as a post office and tax office. Around 1840 it was split into two separate units, explaining the presence of twin front doors and staircases. Protected as a historic building since 1919, it has framed the town museum’s exhibitions since the mid‑20th century. Walking from room to room you sense these layers: administrative hub, bourgeois home, and finally cultural institution interpreting the very history it once helped shape.

A town garden from another era

Outside, a small garden recalls how an urban plot on Ærø might have looked around the 1920s. Fruit trees, old‑fashioned perennials and simple paths create a gentle green pocket in the middle of town. It offers a chance to pause between exhibitions, listen to church bells in the distance and imagine a family tending vegetables, hanging laundry and storing apples for winter. In summer the garden becomes an extra open‑air gallery of textures and colours: whitewashed walls, red roofs, flowering shrubs and the faint scent of herbs carried on the sea breeze.

Exploring Ærøskøbing beyond the museum

Because the museum stands in the heart of Ærøskøbing, it works well as a starting point for exploring the town’s narrow lanes, merchants’ houses and harbour. Themes introduced in the displays—trade across the Baltic, mixed architectural influences, maritime traditions—come alive as you notice carved doorways, half‑timbered facades and views towards the water. Families can look out for occasional children’s activities that encourage younger visitors to engage with the stories on display, from simple treasure‑hunt style tasks to hands‑on interpretive materials. Even without these extras, the size of the house and the compact garden make the museum easy to explore at a relaxed pace, leaving time for further wandering in the old town.