The Natural History Museum of Denmark (Statens Naturhistoriske Museum) occupies the old University of Copenhagen buildings on Øster Farimagsgade, backing onto the Botanical Garden. The collections are substantial — geology, palaeontology, zoology, and botany — and include a good mineral collection, Viking-age animal remains, and a range of dinosaur fossils.
The museum is primarily aimed at children and families, but the depth of the collections rewards adults. The whale hall, with its suspended skeleton of a 17-metre blue whale, is the centrepiece. The museum and the Botanical Garden directly behind it can be combined easily in a half-day visit; both are free or low-cost entry. Less crowded than the main Copenhagen museums.