Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is Copenhagen's most beautiful museum and one of the finest small art museums in Europe. It was founded by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of the Carlsberg brewery and himself a brewer, who began collecting in 1882, gave his collection to the city and the state in 1888, and opened the museum in 1897 in a grand building on H.C. Andersens Boulevard, directly across the road from Tivoli. Its name means the new Carlsberg sculpture collection, and sculpture is its great strength. The ancient collections are superb: Egyptian sculpture and two Roman-period mummies, Greek marbles, a rare Etruscan collection, and one of the world's great collections of Roman portrait heads, rows of emperors, senators and ordinary citizens who look startlingly alive, along with grave portraits from Palmyra. Jacobsen also loved French art of his own time, and the modern collections are as strong: thirty-five sculptures by Auguste Rodin, the complete series of Edgar Degas's bronze sculptures, including his little dancer, more than forty works by Paul Gauguin, many from his years in Tahiti and some from his time in Copenhagen with his Danish wife, and paintings by the Impressionists and the Danish Golden Age. At the heart of the building is the Winter Garden, a glass-domed hall with tall palms, a fountain and a cafe, one of the loveliest spaces in the city and a calm escape on a grey day. Admission costs roughly 135 to 150 DKK for adults, under-18s go free, and the museum is free for everyone on the last Wednesday of each month, which makes those days busy. It is closed on Mondays, and in summer the rooftop terrace hosts evening events on Thursdays. Allow at least two hours; art lovers can easily spend half a day.

The building is part of the experience. The original part, designed by Vilhelm Dahlerup, is a richly decorated late nineteenth-century palace of art, with a dome, mosaics and the Winter Garden, while a later wing by Hack Kampmann houses much of the ancient art in a more austere, temple-like setting, and a modern extension added light-filled galleries for the French collection. The central hall, with its dome and columns, is used for concerts and events, and the rooftop terrace has views over Tivoli and the city. The museum feels generous and unhurried in a way that bigger European museums rarely do, and it remains connected to the Carlsberg Foundation, which supports art and science in Denmark.

How to visit well: begin in the Winter Garden, then choose between the ancient world and the French and Danish art, depending on your interests, as the two halves are quite different. The Roman portraits and the Etruscan galleries are the collections that make the Glyptotek unique; the Degas bronzes and the Gauguins are the crowd favourites. The cafe in the Winter Garden is excellent for lunch or coffee and cake. Check the opening hours before you go, especially for evening openings and holiday changes, and remember that, like many Copenhagen museums, it is closed on Mondays.

The Glyptotek is perfectly placed for a day in the centre. Tivoli is across the boulevard, City Hall and Stroget are two minutes away, and the National Museum, Christiansborg and the harbour are an easy walk. On a rainy day, combine the Glyptotek with the National Museum for a museum day, and finish at Tivoli in the evening. On a free Wednesday, arrive early or late in the day to avoid the busiest hours. The Copenhagen Card includes admission. Families should look out for the museum's activities for children in the school holidays, and anyone interested in the building can join one of the guided tours that run on selected days.