Storm flood museum, memorial garden and popsicle stick exhibition
Step into history and experience a dramatic chapter of Denmark's past at the Storm Flood Museum on Lolland. Here the events of 13 November 1872 are brought back to life where a terrifying storm tidal wave left death and destruction in its wake.
Gloslunde Præstegård, an idyllic 18th century vicarage, is home to a small but informative exhibition and a small cemetery that is being transformed into a memorial garden for the local storm flood victims.
On one particularly fateful day, 13 November 1872, the waters rose to a huge tidal wave and 81 people lost their lives on Lolland and Falster, while a large number of ships were wrecked in the Baltic Sea and the Sound.
The exhibition tells the story of the disaster, where a storm, unfortunate wind shifts and excessively low dikes combined with poor housing on the low islands in Rødby Fjord resulted in death and destruction.
But the story doesn't stop at the disaster. We also tell the story of the subsequent dyke construction and the land reclamation that shaped the area's economic future towards the turn of the century.
The flood claimed the lives of 26 people in the parish of Gloslunde. Twenty-one of the victims were found - and they are all buried in the Annek cemetery - just opposite the old vicarage. On the flat memorial stone next to it, the artist Thomas Kadziola has hand-carved the names of the buried storm surge victims as they appear in the parish register.
Exhibition of popsicle stick construction
The vicarage houses yet another exhibition. Namely Erland Nielsen's popsicle stick construction.
Erland Nielsen was a hard-working man. He was a farmer from the flat floodplain, and for 30 years he built houses, windmills, trains, threshing machines, etc. out of popsicle sticks. The stable in the vicarage displays a large selection of his work.
Erland and his family collected discarded popsicle sticks and used them, along with other materials such as wood and plastic, to create models of local buildings and machinery. Some buildings were based on Erland's memories, while others were made from images and imagination. There were also toys, including dollhouses and money boxes.
Erland's house has been demolished. But what remains is the popsicle parlour as a testimony to how people once found fulfilment and pride in creating works from discarded materials.
The museum and exhibition are open daily during the summer months. See the website for exact times.