Nytt Tycho Brahe museum invigt av Kronprinsessan Victoria

The Tycho Brahe monument on the island of Ven (in the Sound between Denmark and Sweden) today got its eagerly awaited new museum. The new museum is located in the former All Saints Church and was officially opened by Crown Princess Victoria in front of 240 invited guests.

Tycho Brahe is one of the most exciting personalities of scientific history. His great feat was in charting the positions of the stars and planets in the heavens using measuring instruments he constructed himself, instruments that for the 16^th century provided unparalleled accuracy. On Ven he built a mansion site tailored to suit the aims of science where he assembled a large group of researchers and assistants around a joint research programme.

Tycho Brahe?s life and scientific significance is now depicted through reconstructed instruments, film shows, multimedia and archaeological finds from the area.

The new museum being located in a church adds special dimension to the exhibition. This is the first time in Sweden that a parish church has had a permanent use other than for worship and the exhibition theme suits the church environment very well. The prime motive force for renaissance astronomers was in understanding divine creation so the beautiful church interior is an appropriate setting for the large instruments that can now be seen on Ven again just as Tycho Brahe designed them.

Bj?n Ed designed the exhibition, Historian of Ideas H?an H?ansson wrote the manuscript and G?an Nystr? was in charge of production management. The Tycho Brahe monument is owned by The National Swedish Property Board and is run jointly with The Department of Arts and Culture in Landskrona.

During recent years, Ven and the Tycho Brahe monument has had a steady stream of tourists and visitors and the new museum will be a welcome resource to meet the increasing demand. The museum is moving from 25 square metres to just over 200 in the church.

Along with the museum, the first part of the Tycho Brahe Science Centre was also opened. The Centre offers visiting school classes educational programmes where the pupils work on various scientific projects. The first activity ready for use is a weather station that demonstrates different ways of measuring weather. Crown Princess Victoria made the first observation in the Centre

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