During my week-long visit to Stockholm, I spent a very pleasant day (and it took most of that day) exploring Skansen. Skansen is an open-air museum which features original historic buildings intended to convey how life in Sweden was a few centuries ago. There’s also an outdoor open-air display of wildlife — a zoo of native Swedish wildlife — but I’m not going to cover that in this blog. Skansen was founded by Artur Hazelius and opened in 1891.
Reindeer in the Skansen zoo.
A funicular takes you from the entrance to a hilltop, where most of Skansen lies. The funicular dates to 1897 , is about 200 meters long and climbs about 34 meters. It’s a fun ride.
Skansen’s funicular
The museum contains around 150 homes, farmsteads, and related structures mostly purchased by Mr. Hazelius in the 19th century from all around Sweden. These buildings were disassembled and moved piece-by-piece to their current location where they were rebuilt, preserving them and providing a look at traditional Swedish life before industrialization changed everything. The oldest building dates to the 17th century.
The following are examples of some of the old log and timber dwellings at Skansen.:
The photo below was used as our One Clue Mystery two weekends ago. It was recognized by PHeymont and George G — congratulations to both gentlemen! This structure is a cache, likely used to store meat and other foods from animal mischief especially during the cold winter months (when it basically functioned as a freezer). Caches were typically built on tall poles and were accessed by a ladder (which was then removed, making it inaccessible).
One Clue Mystery photo
The park covers 75 acres and attracts more than a million visitors each year, so it is clearly one of the most popular attractions in Stockholm. Besides buildings it contains gardens, fields and livestock — even a recreation of an open pit mine.
Farmhouse garden at Skansen
The Motjarn mine, Skansen
This will be one of my longer blog posts as I wanted to visually share with you the great variety of buildings in Skansen. That said, this is just a sampling of the many sights it has to offer.
A snow machine and toy reindeer from the Sami people of northern SwedenSoldier’s cottage, Skansen
One of several milestones on display at Skansen
The Seglora church is illustrated in the following 5 photos. I found it one of the most interesting buildings at Skansen, although the low light inside the church made photography difficult
Seglora church, Skansen
Post Office, Skansen
The following four photos were taken from the “town quarter”, a recreation of a small town’s businesses and residences:
Street scene in the town quarter, Skansen
Part of the experience is to see people dressed in period costume, such as craftsmen, housewives, and so on. These folks explain (in Swedish or English) how people lived in earlier days. I found them very helpful and most pleasant to converse with.
The interior recreations come with displays of food eaten in these various communities:
Seasonal celebrations are held, such as in December a popular Christmas market is held here. I think it would be a lot of fun to attend one of these.
I’ve never visited a historic outdoor museum as large or with as much variety as Skansen has. I found the place fascinating and whole-heartedly recommend it to those visiting Stockholm.
DrFumblefinger
Follow me on Twitter: @DrFumblefinger. "We do not take a trip, a trip takes us." – John Steinbeck, from Travels with Charley
