The experience at Holmegaard Værk already starts before you enter the glassworks itself. Like a soft border around the works lies the unique glass city. Since the very first productions, the workers have lived here to be near the glass furnaces. A glass worker's working hours start when the glass reaches the right temperature, and in the beginning, temperature was not easily controlled. For that reason, glass workers could be called to work at any time, day and night. For practical reasons, the first worker's housings were built immediately next to the glassworks. The majority of the workforce were foreign glass workers who not really mingled with the surrounding community and gradually, a little, independent community evolved in the bog with public house, grocery store, school and numerous association activities.
In the second half of the 1900s, more and more had the possibility to realize their dream of own home and garden in the surrounding cities. And the possibility of longer educations broke with the long-standing tradition, where the glass worker's children themselves were employed at the factory. The glass workers increasingly moved further away and around the turn of the millennium, they opened up for people with no connection to move into the glass city.
Just like inside the glassworks, we have restored the outside with respect and authenticity. The studios from the days of the glassworks are restored and are now rented out to artists, who have their glass produced at Holmegaard Værk.
When you visit Holmegaard Værk you can take a walk around the unique glass city and experience the atmosphere and the culture-historical environment. You can come close to the first worker's housings, with their 200 years the oldest buildings of the glassworks, and learn more about life at a glassworks – with own public house, grocery store, chapel and school.