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formerly Moesgaard Viking Moot
A large Viking event held every summer in July at Moesgård beach, with reenactments, markets, workshops, and living-history presentations. Interesting activities for all age groups. The event has drawn about 12,000 attendees, both Vikings and audience. A ticket also gives you access to the Moesgaard Museum (MOMU) close by. Because of the event's popularity, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to find a place to park a car nearby. Take a bus, bike or hike through the Marselisborg Forests to get there. Biking from the centre of Aarhus should take you less than an hour.
Daily 10:00-17:00·160 kr, children (3-17 years) 50 kr
The Moesgaard landscape in the southern part of the Marselisborg Forests contains a marked history trail, The Prehistoric Trail, running from the Moesgaard Museum (q.v.) right down to the beach, with reconstructed Stone, Iron, and Viking Age houses and tombs, runestones, etc. If history isn't your thing, just enjoy the beautiful and varied nature of this place; in the spring and summer, it is worth a visit just for that. If you want to eat or drink, start your tour with a meal at the museum, at the nearby Aarhus Golf Club restaurant, or drop in later at the old watermill of Skovmøllen in the woods. You can also bring your own supplies and have a picnic lunch at any spot of your choice; the grassy fields at the Moesgaard Beach is popular for that.
Free
Skovmøllen's menu comprises creative twists on traditional Danish lunches, as well as a hearty weekend brunch, served in the picturesque setting of a restored timber-framed medieval water mill in the midst of Moesgaard Forest. Online reservations are available.
Wed-Sun·Lunch from kr 222
Stupendous architecture: a vast prism of a building half-buried in a grassy hill. The central staircase provides an innovative route into human evolution and prehistory. The museum hosts large changing themed exhibitions from cultures around the world, but is also a fantastic place to study Danish prehistory in particular. The main permanent attractions in this regard are an artificial reconstruction of a large Bronze Age roundbarrow that you can walk inside and two finds from the Nordic Iron Age: Grauballe Man, the only completely preserved bog body, and the impressive sacrifice of weapons from Illerup Ådal. The museum re-opened in the new building in October 2014. Good museum restaurant and café, but a bit expensive. The large historical landscape below the museum is also worth a visit, and is free and accessible year round.
Tue-Fri 09:00-17:00; Wed 09:00-21:00; Sat Sun 09:00-19:00·kr 180 (adults), kr 110 (students and over-65), free for children 17 and under