Permanent exhibitions
Ringsted - In short
The exhibition is a condensed introduction to Ringsted's extensive history and the people who live here. Here is something for both the tourist and the local ring places. See Ringsted's story told through comics on the walls in cartoonist Erik Petri's humorous line. Experience the expansion of Ringsted city through a video installation, and listen to ringsteders' stories about their own city. The fire in Sct. Bendt's Church in 1806 can be experienced up close through virtual reality.
the movie corner
The archive's many historical films are shown in the film corner during opening hours. Take a seat on the soft sofa, lean back and let the calm sink in.
The old movies run one after the other. Some have sound, but most are silent films. Everyone tells stories from Ringsted and the surrounding area from the time of the small films. These are films recorded by private individuals and much later donated to the archive, so that we can enjoy the history together. It's home cinema at its best.
There is no fixed order to the films, so it is not possible to know in advance what is playing.
The women from Kærup
In a display case on the museum's 1st floor you can meet the women from Kærup. In the autumn of 2006, archaeologists found traces of an Iron Age village and a nearby burial site with 11 burial graves in the Kærup area north of Ringsted. Among the 11 burials from the Roman Iron Age, approx. year 250, one in particular stood out.
This tomb contained the well-preserved skeletons of two adult women. One woman is placed on her side and the other laid side by side on her back in her outstretched arm. They are buried with jewelry and other personal belongings, and they have also been given food and drink in bowls with in the grave. The height of the women and the fact that both had healthy, albeit slightly worn, sets of teeth where no teeth are missing, gives a clear impression that they belonged to the upper social strata of the time. The tomb is exhibited as it was found.
In the other 10 tombs, the archaeologists found i.a. costume jewelry, beads of stone, glass and amber, bone combs and rings in gold.
Agriculture, nature and society - it's about pigs!
I on the ground floor of the museum you will find an older exhibition about agriculture. Here, the story of a profession that, from having provided bread for the majority of the population at the time of the agrarian reforms at the end of the 1700th century, now employs very few percent of the workforce.
Ringsted Windmill
It is a very special experience to visit a fully functional wooden wind turbine. Ringsted Windmill is one of the few wind turbines of its kind in Denmark that still runs all year round. The mill was rebuilt after a fire in 1871 and painted commercially until 1965. Since then, the mill fell into disrepair and was on the verge of being demolished. Bjarne Jensen, one of the city's enterprising men, fortunately chose to pay for the full restoration of the mill, so that today it stands as it would have done in the 1930s.
Morten "Møller" Sørensen participated in the restoration, and has since worked as a miller at Ringsted Windmill.
Morten is often ready with a story about the mill. He likes to talk about the process of grinding flour, about the mechanics of the mill and about other details regarding the operation. If the blades are running and running the grinder, there is limited access inside the mill for safety reasons. Violent forces are at play - and powerful gears, large hoists and drive belts run fast. But there is definitely something to look at for a mechanics-interested guest.
The flour that is ground on the mill can be bought on site or in the museum shop. The mill only grinds with controlled grain that has been grown completely without the use of toxins. The flour is therefore organic and completely without additives. You do not get it in the shops, where even the organic flour contains additives. It is a nocturnal, chemical-free product made according to millennial principles.
Therefore, there is also a limited shelf life of the flour. But it tastes great. And you can always come in and buy more.