At the Prison Museum in the old Horsens State Prison, you can experience what it was like to be both imprisoned and employed in the prison system through time. The museum has won awards for its exciting and engaging way of communicating knowledge and facts – worth a visit for people of all ages!
Experience the dramatic award-winning museum
The walls of the old Horsens State Prison hide many violent, fantastic and fascinating stories. As a guest at the museum, you are guaranteed to have a unique, thoughtful and memorable experience you will soon forget.
As soon as you are locked in Europe’s largest prison museum, all your senses are brought into play. The exhibitions offer experiences that can be seen, heard and smelled. Precisely for this reason, a walk around the fantastic building is a great experience for both children and adults. And that is why the museum has repeatedly won awards for its exciting exhibitions. Here you have the exceptional opportunity to come behind bars and meet former inmates as shadows on the walls. Life in PRISON and the story of the Danish prison system are also told through screens, telephones and intercom.
On walls, doors and closets, you can see the sometimes violent or humorous messages from the inmates painted or drawn in as an eternal reminder of their time in the state prison. Together with the digital tools, it helps to tell the authentic story of life behind bars.
Lorentzen’s incredible escape tunnel
Experience the escape king Carl August Lorentzen’s impressive 18 meter long tunnel that led from his cell and out to freedom. Creating such a tunnel has required an enormous amount of hard work, dedication and perseverance. The inspiring story about Lorentzen was then on everyone’s lips and taught the Danish people that “Where there is a will, there is also a way”.
The dark dungeon
The underworld – this is what the prison museum calls its latest exhibition, which can be seen in the old dungeon. The dark cellar was once used for punishment, execution and discipline by the prisoners and this is your chance to see the prison from its gloomier side with painful punishments.
The many exciting stories
Learn about Horsens State Prison’s role during World War II. And get to know Werner Best – the leader of the German Armed Forces, who was sentenced to death after the war and served time in Horsens.
See where and how prisoners sentenced to death were executed in the early period of the prison in the 19th century. And how did it really go when the prisoners got married and had to be romantic?
The prison museum is filled with captivating tales. But don’t worry, the prison is no longer holding people. So unlike the great escape king Carl Lorentzen, who constantly dreamed of freedom and therefore dug his way out of Horsens Prison, you are free to drive from here again.
Also visit the city’s other worth seeing museums
Experience 4 museums in Horsens with one ticket: The museum card gives you access to the Prison, the Industrial Museum, Horsens Art Museum and Horsens Museum for 7 days. Read more here .
