Skansen (; "the
Sconce
Sconce may refer to:
*Sconce (fortification), a military fortification
*Sconce (light fixture)
*Sconcing, imposing a penalty in the form of drink
*Sconce Point
Fort Victoria is a former military fort on the Isle of Wight, England (), built to ...
") is the oldest
open-air museum
An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum.
Definition
Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere ...
and
zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...
in Sweden located on the island
Djurgården
Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), 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 ...
in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. It was opened on 11 October 1891 by
Artur Hazelius
Artur Immanuel Hazelius (30 November 1833 – 27 May 1901) was a Swedish teacher, scholar, folklorist and museum director. He was the founder of both the Nordic Museum (''Nordiska museet'') and the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm.
Ba ...
(1833–1901) to show the way of life in the
different parts of Sweden before the industrial era.
The name has also been used as a noun to refer to other open-air museums and collections of historic structures, particularly in
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
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. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
, but also in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, e.g.
Old World Wisconsin
Old World Wisconsin is an open-air museum located near 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 traditions of different ...
and
Fairplay, Colorado
The historic Town of Fairplay is the Statutory Town that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Park County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 724 at the 2020 United States Census. Fairplay is located in Sout ...
.
History
The 19th century was a period of great change throughout
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, 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 ( sv, Nordiska museet) 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 t ...
on the island of Djurgården near the centre of Stockholm, was inspired by the
open-air museum
An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum.
Definition
Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere ...
, 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 ...
in
Kristiania
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) 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 ...
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; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
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 traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...
in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
) 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 land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
(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 thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...
s. There is also an open-air
zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...
containing a wide range of
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
n animals including the
brown bear
The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...
,
moose
The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...
,
grey seal
The grey seal (''Halichoerus grypus'') is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. In Latin Halichoerus grypus means "hook-nosed sea pig". It is a large seal of the family Phocidae, which are commonly referred to as "true seals" or " ...
,
lynx
A lynx is a type of wild cat.
Lynx may also refer to:
Astronomy
* Lynx (constellation)
* Lynx (Chinese astronomy)
* Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory
Places Canada
* Lynx, Ontar ...
,
otter
Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...
,
reindeer
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
, harbour seal, Eurasian eagle owl, great grey owl and
wolverine
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...
, as well as some non-Scandinavian animals. There are also farmsteads where rare breeds of
farm animals
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
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 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 en ...
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 Swedish show held at Skansen, Stockholm, every summer on Tuesdays between 8pm and 9pm. The audience is encouraged to sing along with musical guest stars to well-known Swedish and internati ...
'' ("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 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758).
Swedenborg had a ...
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 net ...
hut
File:Seglora church 050701.JPG, Seglora
Seglora () is the most rural part of the Borås Municipality. It is bordering to Mark Municipality and Bollebygd Municipality
Bollebygd Municipality (''Bollebygds kommun'') is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its sea ...
Church
File:Grinning Bear.jpg, A brown bear
The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...
at Skansen
File:Kyrkhyltstugan skansen.JPG, House from Blekinge County
Blekinge County ( sv, Blekinge län) is a county or '' län'' in the south of Sweden. It borders the Counties of Skåne, Kronoberg, Kalmar and the Baltic Sea. The capital is Karlskrona. It is the smallest of the present administrative countie ...
now at Skansen
File:Skansen spinner.jpg, A docent demonstrating spinning at Skansen
File:Eingang Skansen.jpg, Entrance Building
See also
*
Culture in Stockholm
Apart from being a large city with an active cultural life, Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, houses many national cultural institutions. There are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Stockholm County area: the Royal Palace Drottningholm (with ...
*
Royal National City Park
The Royal National City Park ( sv, Kungliga nationalstadsparken) is a national city park, established by the Riksdag in 1995, and located in the municipalities of Stockholm, Solna and Lidingö in Sweden.
1/ km²2/ Population per km²
Gallery ...
* The
Baltic Sea Science Center, located on the same site
References
External links
*
Andy Carvin's Skansen GallerySkansen-akvarietPanoramic virtual tour of brown bear enclosure at SkansenThe 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
Zoos established in 1891
Cultural heritage of Sweden