Graceland Memphis, the inspiration for Graceland Randers in The Netherlands
For the last 16 years, Elvis fanatic Henrick Knudsen has run a small Elvis museum in the city of Randers in The Netherlands. It draws about 25,000 visitors per year, but the small scope hasn’t stopped Knudsen from achieving his dream of living in Graceland. Since the original Graceland is in Memphis and isn’t for sale, Knudsen has done the next best thing: Henrick Knudsen has built a replica of Graceland in Randers, The Netherlands, that’s been dubbed Graceland Randers.
Graceland Randers is twice as large as the original Graceland, and houses 6,000 items of Elvis memorabilia, from guitars and shoes to signed contracts and who knows what else. The fact that Knudsen built his own Graceland isn’t the really weird part. The weird part is that Priscilla Presley approved of the whole thing.
“She signed a very nice picture to me on which she wrote: ‘To Graceland Randers, Priscilla Presley’,” said Knudsen, who spent $4.27 million dollars to build his giant-sized Graceland. “She said that Elvis was a very shy guy and he wasn’t really that secure of himself. She believed that if Elvis had the chance to see this today he would be very proud because he wasn’t sure that next year anybody would care about him.”
The new and improved Graceland Randers Elvis museum is expected to draw 75,000 to 125,000 visitors per year, mostly from Europe.
Tags: Elvis fans, Graceland, Graceland Randers, Randers, The Netherlands, Danish Elvis fan recreates Graceland in Randers, Elvis fan makes house look like Graceland, Graceland recreated 5000 miles away from Memphis, Tennessee, mock Graceland built in The Netherlands, unusual houses, Henrick Knudsen
