The Foteviken Museum ( sv, Fotevikens Museum) is an archaeological

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� ...

on the

Höllviken Höllviken (old da, Hulvigen) is a locality situated in Vellinge Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 15.678 inhabitants in 2019. It is located close to both Malmö and the Øresund Bridge which connects Sweden and Denmark. The town is a ...

peninsula in southern Skåne, Sweden. It contains a reconstruction of a large

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

settlement and a "viking reservation", and visitors participate in

living history Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to ree ...

reenactments; it also performs research and functions as the municipal museum of

Vellinge Municipality Vellinge Municipality (''Vellinge kommun'') is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in Vellinge. The present municipality is a result of the latest local government reform in Sweden. In 1974 the municipalities o ...

and part of ''Fotevikens Kulturcenter'', a group of cultural facilities on the peninsula.

History

The museum grew out of the archaeological investigation of sunken viking ships in Foteviken Bay and local interest in the

Battle of Fotevik Battle of Fotevik ( da, Slaget ved Fodevig) was fought between forces of King Niels of Denmark and his son Magnus Nilsson, against those of Erik Emune on 4 June 1134 at the bay of Fotevik in Skåne. At his death, King Eric I of Denmark h ...

, which was fought there on 4 June 1134. A group headed by Björn M. Buttler Jakobsen formed a foundation called SVEG (Scandinavian Viking Explorer Group) in 1987. In 1993, the foundation started planning to open a maritime museum;Roeland Paardekooper, ''The Value of an Archaeological Open-Air Museum Is in Its Use: Understanding Archaeological Open-Air Museums and Their Visitors'', Leiden: Sidestone, 2012,
p. 189
in 1995, after changing their focus towards Viking Age living history, they opened Foteviken Museum, with Jakobsen as its director.Jan Samuelsson
"Leva som en viking lockar"
'' Sydsvenskan'', 16 March 2015 .Elin Wrethov
"Vikingakung trivs när han får berätta"
''Sydsvenskan'', 29 April 2015 . At the in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

, the group built two replica viking cogs; in 2014 the city sold these and the harbour site where they are located is now a medieval-themed tourist area called ''Medeltidsriket Malmöya''.

Facilities and programmes

The museum occupies an approximately site on Höllviken Bay. In addition to a reconstruction of a large Viking Age settlement, the 'Viking Reserve', there are research and handicrafts buildings and three large halls, including a restaurant seating up to 200 and a feast hall. The gate to the reserve is indicated on the museum map as a "border gate" between Sweden and the reserve. Buildings in the reserve are built or rebuilt by staff and volunteers almost every season, with traditional methods being supplemented by modern technology in winter; there were about 22, including a tapestry-lined chieftain's houseBecky Ohlsen and Cristian Bonetto, ''Sweden'', 4th ed. Footscray, Victoria / London: Lonely Planet, 2009, , e-book 2010
p. 183
and a hof.James Proctor and Neil Roland, ''Sweden'', 3rd ed. London: Rough Guides, 2003,
p. 248
The reserve opens for the summer season on

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. Tr ...

, and is intended as a recreation of a large settlement late in the Viking Age, during the transition to the Scandinavian Middle Ages and the increasing influence of Christianity in the North. This enables the museum to include the Battle of Fotevik, which clearly belongs to the medieval period. Those staying in the reserve live as Viking Age people and are not permitted to have modern equipment or wear modern clothing.Mats Amnell
"Så används en völvestav!"
''Sydsvenskan'', 28 June 2016 . It is marketed as open to "all Vikings" and attracts large numbers of Viking Age reenactors; many of the visitors are from outside Scandinavia, particularly from Germany. An international viking

thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuse ...

is held in the ''Tinghöll'' building every year; according to the museum, in 2001 66 representatives from 22 countries were present. The museum has a library which is available for research and makes heavy use of electronic media.Paardekooper, pp. 195–96. It offers various educational programmes, including overnight stays; since it is also the municipal museum of Vellinge, these are free to local schools. However, the reserve has no electricity and minimal signage.

Seasonal programmes

In Midwinter the museum hosts a fire festival. A

May Eve Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess i ...

bonfire is also lit to reproduce a traditional viking celebration of the return of spring. At these and other events, the director plays the role of 'King Björn'. Summer activities at the museum climax in Viking Week in late June; this includes craft days and since 1997 a viking market.Bodil Petersson
''Föreställningar om det förflutna: Arkeologi och rekonstruktion''
Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2003, . At the market in summer 2016, five actors in a group who travel between Viking Age reenactment sites, the Nordic International Slave Trade Company, reportedly threw a bag over a tourist's head and auctioned her off as a

thrall A thrall ( non, þræll, is, þræll, fo, trælur, no, trell, træl, da, træl, sv, träl) was a slave or serf in Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The corresponding term in Old English was . The status of slave (, ) contrasts wi ...

. The police have said they will be speaking to people at the museum about treatment of members of the public.Micaela Landelius
"'De måste ta det lugnt med folk'"
''Sydsvenskan'', 15 July 2016 .

Gallery

Foteviken4.jpg Foteviken5.jpg Schonen-Wikinger Museum Foteviken 10.jpg Schonen-Wikinger Museum Foteviken 07.jpg Eiche-spalten-Wikingerzeit.jpg Schonen-Wikinger Museum Foteviken 04.jpg Schonen-Wikinger Museum Foteviken 03.jpg Schonen-Wikinger Museum Foteviken 13.jpg Foteviken2.jpg Foteviken6.jpg LH-Wikinger-Foteviken.jpg, Fetching water in the viking village. Schonen-Wikinger Museum Foteviken 20.jpg, Wall tapestry in a house in the viking village.

References

External links

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Foteviken Museum
{{authority control Open-air museums in Sweden Museums established in 1993 Archaeological museums in Sweden Living museums Viking Age museums