The fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75) lived in the house until he left for Copenhagen at the age of 14. The place is now a small museum with mementoes from that period of his life.The son of a shoemaker, Andersen learned how to use his imagination from a very early age, playing with a home-made theatre peopled with figures created by his father. But the latter died when he was only eight, and soon, attracted by the lights of the capital and wanting to run away from his stepfather, Andersen left Odense for Copenhagen.