Museum Obscurum

A house of shadows in the heart of Nykøbing

Museum Obscurum occupies the old Falsters Minder building on Færgestræde, a creaky historic house whose narrow staircases and low ceilings are an atmospheric setting for strange tales. As you step inside, you leave the bright market streets behind and enter a warren of small, dimly lit rooms where every surface seems to hold a story. Wooden floors slope gently with age, walls are crowded with framed drawings and maps, and the air smells faintly of dust, wood polish and old paper. The museum is part of Museum Lolland-Falster, but it feels more like entering a private residence frozen in time than a conventional gallery. On the ground floor, the nostalgic Old Grocery Store recalls everyday life from another era, while the more unsettling world of Museum Obscurum reveals itself as you climb to the upper level.

Cornelius Rödder’s curious collection

The exhibition is staged as the home and study of Cornelius S.C. Rödder, an eccentric 19th‑century traveler and collector fascinated by the mysterious and unexplained. Using reconstructed diaries, labels and notes, the curators have pieced together a narrative in which Cornelius roams the world in search of oddities, returning to Falster with crates filled with specimens and stories. In glass cases and on open shelves you encounter an eclectic mix of ethnographic trinkets, preserved animals and more dubious discoveries. A stuffed platypus and a pufferfish share space with bones, jars, handwritten catalogues and half‑finished sketches, all carefully arranged to suggest the mind of a man driven by curiosity and a taste for the uncanny.

On the border between myth and reality

As you move deeper into the house, the exhibits grow stranger. A small “dragon”, a supposed werewolf, fairy‑like beings and other cryptozoological creatures appear in cabinets and specimen drawers. Some objects clearly belong to the world of folklore; others are disturbingly plausible. The lighting is deliberately low, shadows stretching long across the floor, while discreet sound effects add a low murmur of whispering winds and distant creaks. Nothing in the rooms tells you outright what is authentic and what is staged. Instead, carefully worded texts, ambiguous dates and suggestive sketches invite you to question your own assumptions. The theme running through the exhibition is not simply the supernatural itself, but the human need to believe, doubt and interpret.

The secret room behind the hidden door

The framing story behind Museum Obscurum is that, during renovation work in 2017, staff discovered a forgotten door in the old building. Behind it lay a concealed room stacked with transport crates, mysterious artefacts and documents linked to Cornelius Rödder. This “find” provides the narrative excuse for the exhibition: that a long‑hidden private museum has been reopened to the public. Many rooms feel like they could be that secret annex. Crates stand half‑opened, straw packing spills from corners, and hastily tied labels dangle from trunks. Visitors are encouraged to linger over the small details—a scribbled margin note, an unusual symbol, or an odd mismatch between object and description—that hint at a larger backstory.

An immersive atmosphere for all ages

Museum Obscurum is compact but dense, and it typically rewards an unhurried visit. Families weave through the maze of rooms on gentle slopes and staircases, with older children drawn to the eerie elements and younger ones captivated by the animal specimens and quirky props. Adults often find themselves reading the longer texts and piecing together Cornelius’s life and travels. Because the building is old and the rooms intentionally dark in places, the experience feels intimate and slightly theatrical rather than grand or overwhelming. There is no fixed route; visitors choose their own path between study, bedroom, secret cabinets and transitional corridors, which reinforces the sense of exploring a private obsession.

From historic house to modern storytelling

Museum Obscurum sits at the intersection of local history and imaginative scenography. The Falsters Minder house anchors the story in real Nykøbing Falster, a reminder of the town’s past and its trading connections. Within that framework, the exhibition plays with modern museum techniques—soundscapes, lighting, narrative texts—to pose questions about evidence, superstition and how stories are constructed. The result is an experience that is as much about the act of looking and believing as it is about the objects themselves. By the time you descend the stairs back toward the daylight of Færgestræde, you may find yourself glancing twice at the everyday world outside, wondering where the border between obscurum and reality truly lies.