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 on the Isle of Wight, England People with the surname *Jeffrey Sconce, professor ...

") 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 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 museu ...

in Stockholm, Sweden. 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 name has also been used as a noun to refer to other open-air museums and collections of historic structures, particularly in Central and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the 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 Russia, wh ...

, 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 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, e.g. Old World Wisconsin and Fairplay, Colorado.

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 subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

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

, founded by King Oscar II in Kristiania 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 in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

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 ...

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 and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

(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 ch ...

used for the making of cigarettes. There is also an open-air zoo containing a wide range of

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 ...

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, otter,

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 subsp ...

, 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 musc ...

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

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'' ("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 ...

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 Church File:Grinning Bear.jpg, A

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

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 Zoos established in 1891 Cultural heritage of Sweden