Mandøhuset - Interior and History

Living room with Frisian tiles

The house, which makes up the museum Mandøhuset, appears exactly as it was built in 1831, and for the most part arranged as if the shipmaster family is outside for a moment. Before you enter, notice the characteristic entrance and - æ agtengaf, - a scuttle above the door through which you pitched hay onto the loft. Women, children and old people ran a small-scale farming, while the husband was on the move.

In the first room - æ dons - we find the old stove, squeezed into the corner and flanked by two arm-chairs. The sides of the stove are decorated with biblical motifs. On the north wall we find the beautiful Frisian tiles with the well known motifs, but the dark tint makes them rare and special.

We find ourselves in a shipmasters home is evident. Octant, binoculars and other nautical instruments are hanging from the walls together with the indispensable brass basin - hot water bottle of that time.

The tobacco-box on the table has a sliding lid and two rooms - one for tobacco and one for the dottle. To the right - æ swot kammer - the black room - with alcoves and a little window out to the entrance hall - æ framgol.

The room with the alcoves

In the middle room, giving access to the other ones, we find another two alcoves, and Mandøpigen, dressed in the local Mandø costume, which has been brought to the island by women from Ho.

According to tradition there were seven men on Mandø, who after having lost their families in the 1532 flood, fetched new wives in Ho. The women's dress is still worn at the annual festival - Mandøfesten.

The third room, previously the best parlour æ køn dons is arranged with exhibitions of documents, textiles and bric-a-brac, everything related to life on Mandø.

The Kitchen

In the kitchen we find the essential kitchen range, bricked into the corner behind the stove - heat recycling of that time. The range is made of cast iron with brass knobs and motifs on doors and sides. On the shelves we find kitchen utensils used for cooking over a range fired with wood.

In the kitchen you can peep into - æ glashus, - where silver and fine drinking glasses were kept. If things were not in use, visitors could admire the beautiful glassware, often of origin beyond the seas.

East of the kitchen is the storage room with different gear - fowler's nets, beater's sticks, sea-boots, harness and a - kasseryw - a rake to rake up dried cow and sheep dung, used as solid fuel on the treeless island. The big oven is also placed here.

Exibitions and Archives of Local History

The east end of the house, which the museum obtained some time later, is fitted up for small separate exhibitions. Life-saving service and strandings on Mandø. A superb ship's model of one of the Iceland wessels Anna.

Recent history contribute with wreckage from English bombers, shot down over the sea. Also a flying suit, belonging to a crew member, who was saved and helped to move on by the locals, during World War 2.

In addition to that, butter casks from the closed down dairy, now reconstructed on the open-air-museum Hjerl Hede Frilandsmuseum.

Apart from giving a very detailed picture of life on the island in the 19th century, the house also holds the archives of local history.

The entire museum gives evidence of how descendants on the little island, materially poor but rich in history, have put energy and engagement into preservation of building, articles and stories, to retain the memory of their ancestors, and proudly display it to visitors.