The £35m (US$53m, €41m) museum project for Henry VIII’s flagship, the Mary Rose, has officially opened to the public in Portsmouth, UK.

The museum is located at the same dockyard where the Tudor warship was built more than 500 years ago.

It functions as a giant ‘air lock’ and time capsule which is built around King Henry VIIIs Mary Rose Ship, reuniting her with its content and crew.

The new museum, led by Wilkinson Eyre Architects (architect) and Pringle Brandon Perkins+Will (architects for the interior) was built around the hull of the ship.

The boat-shaped museum will showcase 19,000 artefacts associated with it. Artefacts on display will include wooden eating bowls, leather shoes, musical instruments, longbows, two tonne guns and nit combs.

The building takes the form of a finely crafted wooden ‘jewellery box’ with the hull at its centre and galleries running the length of the ship, each at a level corresponding to a deck level on the ship.

Faces of some of the crew have been recreated by forensic science experts using skulls found with the wreck.

The opening will mark 30 years since the hull of the Mary Rose was raised in 1982.

Historian Dan Snow, and ambassador for the new museum said: “The story of the Mary Rose has fascinated people for generations.

“This tremendous new Museum housing together for the first time the hull of the ship and its many treasured artefacts will give us a sense of what life was like on aboard a Tudor ship like never before, helping to preserve the history of the Mary Rose for generations to come.”

The fundraising target was achieved with £23m (US$36m, 27m euro) support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, as well as funds from charitable trusts, corporate and private sponsors, a public appeal and a team of volunteer fundraisers.