Celebration – Nonnebakken is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Grab your loved ones and join in the celebration, which includes everything from a Viking market and mead tasting to a fire show and the inauguration of a hiking trail and a special light installation. All activities except the opening of the new Viking Walking Route take place at Nonnebakken.

Programme to mark the designation of Nonnebakken as a World Heritage Site on Saturday 30 September 2023 at 10-20 

10.00 Opening of the Viking walking route. Join a free guided walk in the footsteps of the Vikings with guides from Museum Odense and Dansk Vandrelaug. The walk starts at Aasum Kirke. SOLD OUT.

12.00 The celebration opens with speeches 

• Mayor Peter Rahbæk Juel, opens the celebration and installation.
• Councillor Søren Windell.
• Director of Museum Odense, Henrik Harnow.
• District Deputy Storsire, Jan Michael Ørnhøj at Odd Fellow Logerne.
• Mads Runge is master of ceremonies.

12.30 Giersings Realskole's choir sings.

12.30 Viking Market with the Iron Age Village Odins Odense opens, and it is possible to:

• Visit the stalls, Culinary Viking Age - presentation of Iron Age and Viking Age cooking with tastings, surgeon and warrior training for children.
• Draw beautiful Viking Age griffin animals with chalk at Nonnebakken.
• Learn about different crafts with leather and woodcarving. Meet the barber (who used to be the local surgeon) with reconstructed surgical tools. How wounded warriors were helped during a battle. You can also learn about healing plants.
• Experience music and stories from the Viking Age, performed by Nanna Barslev & co.

12.20 - 16.00 Experience Hans Arnklit's installation "The Secret of the Coffins" at Odense Cathedral, which brings the story of the earliest graves to life.

12.30 - 16.00 Exclusive guided tours of the lodge (small groups of 6 people)

12.30 - 16.00 Visit the Odd Fellow lodge and the restaurant Palæet, where food and drinks can also be purchased.

12.45 - 13.30 Aerial view of a human chain. We stand together and show the city that took root in the Viking Age. Everyone is welcome to participate.

13.35 Small performances about the Viking Age in the schoolyard of Giersings Realskole.

14.15 Artist Erik Peitersen and students from Giersings Realskole's 6th grade inaugurate the recreated violence with a joint performance.

16.00 - 17.15 Storytelling theatre about Norse Mythology (30 min) and light-hearted songs (30 min) by the music group Verdande - all with a twinkle in the eye. Viking talks in the Odd Fellow Lodge's small hall.

16.00 - 19.30 The Viking Market continues, but the activities now become a warrior camp.

• Visit the field kitchen with tastings from the Viking Age.
• Hang out with the Vikings in their camp, where there are games, robbery stories and singing as darkness falls.
• Taste and buy quality mead from the Mjødladen stall.

17.00 Research leader from Museum Odense, Mads Runge, talks about the Viking castle in the Odd Fellow Lodge.

19.00 The architects from JAC studios, landscape architect Erik Brandt Dam and Mads Runge discuss the ideas behind the temporary art installation and the future marking of the castle.

19.40 Large fire show at Nonnebakken.

20.00 Museum Odense's Chairman of the Board Simon Møberg Torp inaugurates JAC Studio's artwork at Nonnebakken, which marks the site of the castle with reflective flags. Then the celebration ends.

Read more about the Viking ring fortress and Nonnebakken here

Wondering why a hidden Viking castle can be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site? You can find the answer to this and many other questions in our FAQ section