Skansen is established as the world's first…
1891 CE
The nineteenth century has been a period of great change throughout Europe, and Sweden is no exception.
Its rural way of life is rapidly giving way to an industrialized society and many fear that the country's many traditional customs and occupations might be lost to history.
Hazelius, who had previously founded the Nordic Museum on the island of Djurgården near the center of Stockholm, had been inspired by the open-air museum, founded by King Oscar II in Kristiania in 1881, when he created his open-air museum on the hill that dominates the island.
Skansen will become the model for other early open-air museums in Scandinavia and later ones elsewhere.
Skansen is originally a part of the Nordic Museum, but will become an independent organization in 1963.
The objects within the Skansen buildings will remain the property of the Nordic Museum.
After extensive traveling, Hazelius had bought around one hundred and fifty houses from all over the country (as well as one structure from Telemark in Norway) and had had them shipped piece by piece to the museum, where they have been rebuilt to provide a unique picture of traditional Sweden.
Only three of the buildings in the museum are not original, and had been painstakingly copied from examples he had found.
All of the buildings are open to visitors and show the full range of Swedish life from manor houses to farmhouses.
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