Unspecified/General

Founded in 1891 on the green island of Djurgarden, Skansen is recognised as the world's first open-air museum and continues to rank among the most popular attractions in Stockholm. Its creator, the folklorist Artur Hazelius, set out to rescue and display the traditional life of Sweden at a time when industrialisation was sweeping it away, and to do so he collected more than a hundred and fifty buildings from every corner of the country, taking apart farmhouses, cottages, workshops, a wooden church, a manor and even part of an old town and reassembling them across the hilly grounds, grouped by region so that a walk through the museum becomes a journey through the nation's past. Throughout the site, staff in period dress keep the old ways alive, working at crafts such as glassblowing, baking and weaving, and the great seasonal celebrations held here, the midsummer festivities and the Christmas market chief among them, are treasured for their authenticity. Skansen doubles as a zoo, with brown bears, wolves, lynx, elk, seals, reindeer and other Nordic creatures, plus an aquarium and a children's farm. Perched on a height with sweeping views over the water and the city, and uniting history, wildlife, handicraft and festivity, it makes a memorable and thoroughly Swedish outing for visitors of every age. Such was the influence of Hazelius's creation that the word skansen, originally meaning a small fort or redoubt, has passed into other languages as a general name for an open-air museum of this type, and the museum inspired many imitators across Scandinavia and further afield. A walk through the grounds carries visitors from a southern farmstead to a Sami camp from the far north, from a quarter of craftsmen's workshops and old-fashioned shops to grander structures such as a manor house and a wooden bell tower, each district and period embodied in genuine buildings rescued from demolition. The artisans plying their trades, the shops stocked with traditional wares and the animals of the zoo together make history feel vivid and close at hand, while the round of festivals, from the midsummer maypole to the candlelit Christmas market, draws throngs of Stockholmers who come to mark their own customs here. The zoo gathers Nordic wildlife rarely seen together elsewhere, and a section of exotic creatures and an aquarium broaden its appeal. Open throughout the year and ever-changing with the seasons, set on a windswept rise commanding fine views over the city and the water, Skansen endures as a deeply cherished institution and one of the unmissable destinations of the Swedish capital.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: 49-51 Djurgardsslatten, Stockholm, Sweden

Website: https://www.skansen.se

Opening Date: 11/10/1891