Skansen Outdoor Museum


Skansen is a huge outdoor museum, the first of its kind in Scandinavia. Buildings from around the country and from different time periods have been brought here and reassembled. Many of the farmsteads are active, with students acting the parts of farmers and shop keepers. It also includes some smaller, less "well-known" museums, such as the Tobak Och Tändstik's Museet - "Tobacco and Matchstick" museum, home to the world's largest cigar!

Many shops in Skansen make and sell period items. This picture shows a rack of molds used in glass making; glass blowers were at work inside the shop.

	Early 1800's farmstead - this type of fencing is still seen around the Swedish countryside.

	Sod roofs support growing grass.

	Wooden church, not as ornate as the wooden churches from Norway. It is interesting that most churches, including this one, had a separate bell tower building, just in case the church burned down (which they often did, being made of wood); the expensive bell would be saved.

	A small wood lot to the right of this building produces wood products, using old methods, for repairs such as this to the buildings at Skansen.

This is the only building in Skansen that is not from Sweden, it is from Norway. The original founder of Skansen had hoped that it would contain buildings from around Scandinavia, but this is as far as he got with that part of the project.

This is the corner detail from one of the log buildings at Skansen - it is particularly interesting because of the double-angled dove-tail joints, exactly like all of the buildings on Jerry's grandfather's (who emigrated from Sweden in 1896) homestead in Montana.

	There were several old mile markers scattered here and there throughout Skansen, made from concrete, carved stone, and metal. This stone mile marker was erected in 1737. It is important to note that the distances given at that time from town to town were given in "Swedish Miles" where 1 Swedish mile equals about 10 kilometers.

	This is one of a pair of stones from Hägerstalund west of Stockholm. The inscription reads: "Gärdar and Jorund had these stones raised in memory of their nephews Ärnmund and Ingemund." The other of the pair remains in Hägerstalund; it reads: "These monuments are to the memory of Inga's sons. She came into inheritance after them, but her brothers came into the inheritance after her, Gärdar, and his brother. They died in Greece."

This rune stone has been painted so you can see the details of the knot work animals and patterns, and the carved runes. Rune stones were probably originally painted, but the paint has long since worn off of most of them.

	Statue in Skansen.

	This was a common sight in Skansen. It was like being in a "time machine". Most of the employee's dressed in period clothes.

	What most felons saw!


Skansen sits on a hill on an island, overlooking the harbor and islands of Stockholm proper.

	Susan was in charge of the film camera, Jerry was in charge of the digital camera.

	Windmills were once common on the Swedish landscape, such as this old flour mill. The vanes on this mill have been replaced with new ones, and it can still function as a flour mill.

	Wolves are about as common in Scandinavia as they are in the lower 48 states, although the Swedes and Norwegians are taking steps to protect and reintroduce them like we are. They were nearly hunted to extinction, just as in the U.S. Skansen had quite a few animals in the zoo portion, mostly from Scandinavia, but from other places as well - Asia, North America, and Africa.

Susan planning our next destination after Skansen.