What You See Inside Copenhagen's Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

What you see inside the Glyptotek

Dahlerup designed the red-brick and terracotta facade on Dantes Plads, and the Winter Garden sits behind it under the glass dome. The palms in there have grown to full height. The mosaic floor runs out from the fountain at the centre.

The sculpture halls are a different kind of room, top-lit and kept dim, with Roman portrait heads in marble. The temporary exhibition "The Power of Fashion in the Roman Empire" runs from 1 October 2026 to 29 March 2027.

The museum opens 10:00 to 17:00 Tuesday to Sunday, with a late Thursday to 21:00. It closes on Mondays.

Lunch and cake under the dome

Picnic at Glyptoteket (inside the museum) sets its tables under the glass dome among the palm fronds and the marble statues, with the fountain behind them. Smørrebrød and cake come on small plates. Chef Lasse Askov opened the café in 2018, and it is worth an extra hour inside.

The kitchen runs 11:30 to 15:00, and on Thursdays again from 17:00 to 19:30. Turn up at 16:00 and you are having coffee and cake. The price band is kr.kr., and you need a museum ticket to reach the room at all.

Tables take reservations for weekday lunch and for Thursday evenings. Weekends take none, so come off-peak on those days.

Tickets, free days and guides

Visitors under 27 pay 108 kr. to 120 kr. Under-18s go free, and the last Wednesday of every month is free for everyone. An online ticket stays valid for a year, so you can book before you travel.

Parties of 10 or more pay a reduced rate. A private guided tour in Danish or English lasts 45 to 60 minutes, takes up to 30 people and costs 1,100 kr. per group on top of admission, booked at least 14 days ahead. The free Sunday tours are first-come, first-served, two tickets per person.

Guided walking tours that take in the museum run seven days a week, and they are booking up steadily. Reserve a place before you reach the city.

Best time to go

Be at the door for 10:00 if the sculpture halls are what you came for. The café's lunch service starts later in the morning.

Thursday is the evening to pick. The halls stay open after dark, and the café serves a second time.

Sunday suits anyone who wants a guide without paying for one, as long as you arrive early enough to collect tickets in person.

In October, Tivoli's pumpkins are over the road at the same time as the Roman fashion show inside. Mondays are the one day to avoid.

Is it worth it

It suits a visitor who likes antiquities and will sit down for an hour under the palms. Pick your day with some care, because the galleries, the kitchen and the free tour each keep their own hours.

Monday, when the Glyptotek is shut

National Museum of Denmark (Ny Vestergade 10) opens every day, 10:00 to 17:00, which makes it the straightforward Monday substitute. Entry is 135 kr. online and 150 kr. at the door, and under-18s go free. Its Children's Museum closes on 18 October 2026 for a rebuild due in summer 2027. Long parquet-floored galleries run through an 18th-century royal palace, holding the Bronze Age gold sun chariot, oak coffin burials, Viking swords and runestones.

Museum of Copenhagen (Stormgade 18) is two streets from the Glyptotek in a white 1890s building and also opens on Mondays, 10:00 to 17:00, Thursdays to 20:00 and weekends 11:00 to 17:00. Adults pay 110 kr. and under-18s go free. Wednesdays are free for everyone, and pensioners go free on Tuesdays. Inside are excavated city finds, medieval timbers and a large floor model of Copenhagen's growth.

Danish Architecture Center (BLOX, Bryghuspladsen) opens late on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, to 21:00. Adults pay 135 kr., under-27s and students 60 kr., under-18s free with a paying adult. Under-27s get in free on Fridays from 16:00 to 21:00. Walk-ins are fine when there is space. OMA's stacked green-glass block straddles the harbour road, with open stairs and terraces and a café looking across the water to Christianshavn.

Rundetaarn opens 362 days a year, and 10:00 to 21:00 on Mondays and Tuesdays in winter, with the observatory telescope in use from 18:00 to 21:00. Adults pay 60 kr., students 40 kr., under-18s free. A 209m spiral cobbled ramp climbs the 1642 brick tower to a railed rooftop platform over the old town roofs, past a glass floor above the old church library. There is no lift, and it does not work with a wheelchair or a stroller. Capacity is capped, and at peak times you wait at the door, rarely more than 20 minutes.

Sculpture and viewpoints on the same walk

Thorvaldsens Museum (beside Christiansborg) is a 10-minute walk, an ochre-yellow neoclassical block with Egyptian-style tapering doorways and painted friezes outside. Inside, white plaster and marble Thorvaldsen figures stand in boldly coloured vaulted rooms. Entry is 110 kr., under-18s free, free for everyone on Wednesdays and free for seniors on Tuesdays. The courtyard is fenced off for building work, and drinks come out on the front steps instead.

Christiansborg Palace Tower (King's Gate, under the tower) costs nothing and needs no ticket. At 106m, under a copper spire with a crown finial, its glazed gallery looks down over Slotsholmen's canals to the Glyptotek's dome and Tivoli. Access is by lift only, the summit holds a limited number at a time, and there is no stair alternative when the queue is long. It closes on Mondays and from 22 December to 5 January.

Copenhagen City Hall (Københavns Rådhus) is 5 minutes from Dantes Plads. The building tour costs 80 kr. and the tower climb 40 kr., booked separately. The tower is 300 steps with no lift. Tours follow a fixed public schedule, and events in the building can cancel them at short notice, so confirm the day before. Inside is a vast marble-floored banqueting hall and Jens Olsen's astronomical World Clock, and a gilded statue of Bishop Absalon stands over the door. The brick tower reaches 105m and has an open balcony over the rooftops.

The Black Diamond (Royal Danish Library, on the harbour) is 7 minutes away and free to enter. Weekday hours run 8:00 to 20:00, with shorter weekends. A black polished granite cube leans out over the water, and a white atrium slices through it with suspended walkways and a full-height glass wall. It is a working library, so keep to the atrium, the exhibition rooms and the café. Exhibitions and the café cost extra.

The Danish Jewish Museum (through the quiet Library Garden) charges 100 kr. for adults and 50 kr. for students, children free. Daniel Libeskind's interior fills an old royal boathouse with sloping plywood floors, tilting walls and light slots spelling the Hebrew word Mitzvah. The 1943 rescue story takes 30 minutes. Hours are Wednesday to Sunday 11:00 to 17:00 from September to May, and Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00 in summer. The galleries are small, so book ahead.

Lunch away from the museum café

Restaurant Kronborg (Brolæggerstræde) is 8 minutes' walk and does the traditional lunch the Glyptotek's own café leaves out. Rows of open rye sandwiches arrive with pickled herring, breaded plaice and remoulade, snaps bottles on ice, on paper-covered tables in a low whitewashed cellar. The price band is kr.kr. It serves lunch only, 11:00 to 17:00 Monday to Saturday, and closes on Sundays. Reservations go by phone or email, and the cellar is small, so book well ahead for a table of more than six.

RizRaz (off Store Kannikestræde) runs an all-you-can-eat vegetarian and vegan buffet with meat and fish à la carte, from 11:30 until late, seven days a week. Big copper trays hold falafel, roast vegetables, hummus and marinated salads in a warm tiled room, with a courtyard behind.

Tivoli over the road

Tivoli Gardens backs onto the Glyptotek. Entry starts at 200 kr., or 389 kr. with a ride pass, and under-3s go free. The 1843 pleasure garden has a Chinese pagoda over a lake, a wooden rollercoaster and thousands of filament lights in the trees, and October brings 20,000 carved pumpkins along the paths. It runs in seasons: Halloween from 2 October to 1 November 2026, Christmas from 13 November to 7 January, closed on 24 December. Check it is open on your date before you build a half-day around it.

Copenhagen Visitor Service (Vesterbrogade, opposite Tivoli's main gate) is 5 minutes from the Glyptotek and from Central Station. Walking in is free, and the glass-fronted centre has multilingual staff, map tables, city and bike maps, self-guided walking routes and the terminals that sell or activate Copenhagen Cards for a whole party at once. Hours are 09:00 to 16:00 on weekdays and 10:00 to 16:00 at weekends outside high summer.

The brewery that paid for the museum

Home of Carlsberg (the old Valby brewery) is a metro ride out to Carlsberg. Carl Jacobsen built the Glyptotek out of brewing profits, which is the reason to come out here. Adults pay 235 kr., including a 40cl beer or soft drink; ages 6 to 17 pay 155 kr. and under-6s go free. Four granite elephants hold up the Elephant Gate, cellar walls carry more than 22,000 beer bottles, and copper kettles fill the brewhouse. Add-on tastings are 18+, and the guided Secret Cellars tour is a separate booking.

Before you go

Mondays close the Glyptotek and the Christiansborg tower, and a private guide needs 14 days' notice. See the Copenhagen guide and the Copenhagen hotel search.