Skansen (; "the Sconce") is the oldest

open-air museum An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings" ...

and

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...

in Sweden located on the island

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, , is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum Skansen, the small resident ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It was opened on 11 October 1891 by Artur Hazelius (1833–1901) to show the way of life in the different parts of Sweden before the industrial era. The term "skansen" has become a generic term referring to other open-air museums and collections of historic structures, particularly in Central and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, but also in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, e.g.

Old World Wisconsin Old World Wisconsin is an open-air museum located near Eagle, Wisconsin, Eagle, in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. It depicts housing and the daily life of settlers in 19th-century Wisconsin, with separate areas representing the trad ...

and

Fairplay, Colorado Fairplay is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Statutory town, statutory town that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Park County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 724 a ...

History

The 19th century was a period of great change throughout

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, and Sweden was no exception. Its rural way of life was rapidly giving way to an industrialised society and many feared that the country's many traditional customs and occupations might be lost to history. Artur Hazelius, who had previously founded the

Nordic Museum The Nordic Museum () is a museum located on Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm, Sweden, dedicated to the cultural history and ethnography of Sweden from the early modern period (in Swedish history, it is said to begin in 1520) to the ...

on the island of Djurgården near the centre of Stockholm, was inspired by the

, founded by King

Oscar II Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik; 21 January 1829 – 8 December 1907) was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death in 1907 and King of Norway from 1872 to 1905. Oscar was the son of King Oscar I and Queen Josephine. He inherited the Swedish and Norweg ...

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

in 1881, when he created his open-air museum on the hill that dominates the island. Skansen became the model for other early open-air museums in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

and later ones elsewhere. Skansen was originally a part of the Nordic Museum, but became an independent organisation in 1963. The objects within the Skansen buildings are still the property of the Nordic Museum. After extensive travelling, Hazelius bought around 150 houses from all over the country (as well as one structure from

Telemark Telemark () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway. Telemark borders the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder. In 2020, Telemark merged with the county of Vestfold to form the county o ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

) and had them shipped piece by piece to the museum, where they were rebuilt to provide a unique picture of traditional Sweden. Only three of the buildings in the museum are not original, and were painstakingly copied from examples he had found. All of the buildings are open to visitors and show the full range of Swedish life from the Skogaholm Manor house built in 1680, to the 16th century Älvros farmhouses.

The open-air museum

Skansen attracts more than 1.3 million visitors each year. The many exhibits over the 75

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

(300,000 m²) site include a full replica of an average 19th-century town, in which craftsmen in traditional dress such as tanners, shoemakers, silversmiths, bakers and glass-blowers demonstrate their skills in period surroundings. There is even a small patch growing

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

used for the making of

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

s. There is also an open-air

containing a wide range of

n animals including the

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on av ...

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

grey seal The grey seal (''Halichoerus grypus'') is a large seal of the family Phocidae, which are commonly referred to as "true seals" or "earless seals". The only species classified in the genus ''Halichoerus'', it is found on both shores of the Nort ...

Eurasian lynx The Eurasian lynx (''Lynx lynx'') is one of the four wikt:extant, extant species within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. It is widely distributed from Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe to Cent ...

Arctic fox The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small species of fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Tundra#Arctic tundra, Arctic tundra biome. I ...

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

harbour seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinnipeds, pinniped (walruses ...

, Eurasian eagle owl,

great grey owl The great grey owl (''Strix nebulosa'') (also great gray owl in American English) is a true owl, and is the world's largest species of owl by length. It is distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, and it is the only species in the genus ''Str ...

and

wolverine The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...

, as well as some non-Scandinavian animals. There are also farmsteads where rare breeds of

farm animals A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

can be seen. In early December the site's central Bollnäs square is host to a popular Christmas market that has been held since 1903, attracting around 25,000 visitors each weekend. In the summer there are displays of

folk dancing A folk dance is a dance that reflects the life of the people of a certain country or region. Not all ethnic dances are folk dances. For example, Ritual, ritual dances or dances of ritual origin are not considered to be folk dances. Ritual dances ...

and concerts.

Funicular railway

Since 1897, Skansen has been served by the Skansens Bergbana, a

funicular railway A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite ends ...

on the northwest side of the Skansen hill. The funicular is 196.4 meters long, with a total rise of 34.57 meters. Skansen is also served by trams on line 7.

Keepers of Skansen

Gallery

File:Skogaholm_Manor.jpg, Skogaholm Manor File:Skansen-SkogaholmHerrgard-westwing-MathewDodson.jpg, The west wing of Skogaholm Manor in early summer. It contains a library, china pantry and five guest rooms. File:Allsang pa Skansen 2004-07-20.jpg, ''

Allsång på Skansen ''Allsång på Skansen'' (''Sing-along at Skansen'') is a Sweden, Swedish show held at Skansen, Stockholm, every summer on Tuesdays between 8pm and 9pm. The audience is encouraged to sing-along, sing along with musical guest stars to well-known ...

'' ("Sing-along at Skansen") is a popular annual event. File:Largest cigar.jpg, World's largest cigar at the Tobacco and Matchstick Museum File:Скансенс.jpg, Skansen on a winter afternoon File:Swedenborgs lusthus Skansen 2005-07-29 02.jpg, Summerhouse of

Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (; ; born Emanuel Swedberg; (29 January 168829 March 1772) was a Swedish polymath; scientist, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, Christian theologian, philosopher, and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ...

File:Skansens bergbana 050701 06.JPG, The funicular railway File:Kåta 050701.JPG, A

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

hut File:Seglora church 050701.JPG, Seglora Church File:Grinning Bear.jpg, A

at Skansen File:Kyrkhyltstugan skansen.JPG, House from

Blekinge County Blekinge County () is a county or '' län'' in the south of Sweden. It borders the Counties of Skåne Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden ...

now at Skansen File:Skansen spinner.jpg, A docent demonstrating spinning at Skansen File:Eingang Skansen.jpg, Entrance Building

References

External links

*
Andy Carvin's Skansen Gallery

Skansen-akvariet

Panoramic virtual tour of brown bear enclosure at Skansen

The Skansen Funicular Railway
{{authority control Museums in Stockholm Zoos in Sweden Open-air museums in Sweden Living museums Folk museums in Sweden 1891 establishments in Sweden Educational organizations established in 1891 Zoos established in the 19th century Cultural heritage of Sweden Museums established in 1891 1890s establishments in Stockholm