If you're planning on traveling around Sweden this year, you should definitely consider paying Skansen Museum a visit to be familiar with the country's cultural history. Established by Artur Hazelius in 1891, it is the oldest open-air Stockholm museum located in the capital of Scandinavia.
For you to know what this popular museum has to offer, read through the following curious and interesting .
1. Amazed at the museum of the same style constructed by King Oscar II in 1881, Hazelius was inspired to build his own, and that was when Skansen Museum was born in Stockholm.
2. Over 150 traditional farms and houses around Sweden were bought, disassembled and brought to Skansen to make it look like a miniature of the country. And it's Hazelius alone who paid for all of them.
3. Most of the structures and farmsteads displayed at Skansen Museum for public viewing come from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. Hazelius' primary objective why he built Skansen is to make visitors become well-aware of how Swedish across the country lived and survived in those centuries.
4. To make all the tourists feel like that they're actually living in Sweden a few centuries earlier, Skansen's staff dress up like craftsmen in historical clothes such as bakers, silversmiths and shoemakers.
5. All items on display at Skansen Museum are originally owned by Nordic Museum, the first museum Hazelius built in 1873.
6. Skansen is not just a museum but a zoo and an aquarium complex as well. Skansen zoo and aquarium complex are perfect for tourists who carry kids with them. The two aforementioned other attractions feature animals native to Scandinavia such as bears, seals, chicks, bisons and wolverines. However, expect to see some popular animals other than Scandinavian ones.
7. Skansen holds Midsummer celebration every June 21. Considered as an extremely family-friendly event of the year, the celebration presents activities ranging from folk dancing to children's dancing shows.
8. Right after exploiting the rich culture of Sweden through taking a tour around Skansen, you could take some break time and eat at any of Skansen's five restaurants. There is the on-site Gubbhyllan that serves lunches and cakes for desserts. And if you want a typical restaurant in cafeteria style, you can easily spot Skansen Terrassen just within the premises.
9. Whether it's a Swedish present for a loved one or a souvenir for yourself, there's the Skansen museum shop to give them all to you at reasonable prices. If what you want to bring home with you are some baked goods, glassware or handmade pots, Skansen has the potter's workshop, bakery and glass shop to grant them all.
10. Due to its popularity and the quality of artifacts exhibited throughout the museum, Skansen entertains more than 1.3 million tourists annually. It is therefore treated as one of the most visited museums in Stockholm, Sweden.
Have you already realized how much you can enjoy visiting Skansen Museum with your loved ones? Those ten interesting facts are just some that you had to know so as to convince yourself how worth visiting Skansen is. If you're eager to know hundred more interesting things about Skansen, make sure you list down this museum as one of the tourist attractions in Sweden you will call on in the future.