The good experience -
Of cultural heritage from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages in Central and West Zealand and other places in Northern Europe

The dissertation uncovers history culture, experiences and dissemination trends in Viking and medieval attractions in Denmark, Germany and Sweden.

This is done with the strategic aim of presenting examples of cultural heritage experiences that can serve to develop the cultural heritage industry in central and western Zealand. The thesis focuses on overall consumption patterns, as well as on the essentials of the visitor's personal encounter with cultural heritage. Thus, the thesis presents a theoretical alternative to the dominant (typically critical constructivist) paradigm, as well as new knowledge about where the attraction of cultural heritage from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages lies - namely, the attraction that 'goes deeper' than pedagogy and technology. Furthermore, the thesis presents an overview of the 'attraction landscape', which among other things suggests that the attraction potential within Viking Age experiences, as they appear in 2016, is overestimated by the museum and tourism industry. The thesis also presents a new user group division, where emotions about concrete stories and materialities in the cultural heritage experience are included in an unprecedented way. A number of examples of particularly successful cultural heritage experiences are presented in the thesis under the phenomenon of super-attractions – an attraction phenomenon that can be an inspiration for the attraction development of Central and West Zealand. Which experiences can be characterized as super-attractions contain a number of surprises.

Ph.d. the project was a collaboration between When Denmark was created, Museum Vestsjælland, Ny Trelleborg / Slagelse Municipality and the Danish Agency for Culture.