Stockholm - Skansen Open-Air Museum

The Skansen open-air museum, a branch of the Nordic Museum, extends over a large area to the east of the Biological Museum in Stockholm. The initiator and founder of the museum, which was opened in 1891, was Artur Hazelius, who was concerned to save something of the older Sweden before the development of industry had gone too far in changing the country. The old buildings brought together here include a church and a manor house, Lapp dwellings and an upland shieling (summer grazing station), smallholders' cottages and peasant farmhouses, and a whole quarter of a town, with craftsmen's workshops. Over the years some 150 old buildings of historical interest have been assembled at Skansen, which is now 10 times its original size. In the various houses and workshops visitors can see something of many traditional crafts - butter and cheese making, baking, weaving, basketwork, wood-turning, glass-blowing, etc.