Editing Skansen (section)

== History ==
[[File:Folkvisedanslaget, den första ringen, vid Skansens vårfest 1904, på sommarteatern å nedre Solliden - Nordiska Museet - NMA.0052947.jpg|thumb|Folk dance at Skansen in 1904.]]
[[File:Gruppbild av personalen på Skansen, kullor och en man i mitten. Gåva till Arthur Hazelius - Nordiska Museet - NMA.0044869.jpg|thumb|Skansen staff in 1896.]]
[[File:Valrossarna på Skansen matas av djurskötare och herre i paletå och hög hatt - Nordiska Museet - NMA.0048348.jpg|thumb|Walrus being fed at Skansen, 1908.]]
The 19th century was a period of great change throughout [[Europe]], and Sweden was no exception. Its rural way of life was rapidly giving way to an industrialised society and many feared that the country's many traditional customs and occupations might be lost to history. Artur Hazelius, who had previously founded the [[Nordic Museum]] on the island of Djurgården near the centre of Stockholm, was inspired by the [[Norsk Folkemuseum|open-air museum]], founded by King [[Oscar II of Sweden|Oscar II]] in [[Oslo|Kristiania]] in 1881, when he created his open-air museum on the hill that dominates the island. Skansen became the model for other early open-air museums in [[Scandinavia]] and later ones elsewhere.

Skansen was originally a part of the Nordic Museum, but became an independent organisation in 1963. The objects within the Skansen buildings are still the property of the Nordic Museum.

After extensive travelling, Hazelius bought around 150 houses from all over the country (as well as one structure from [[Telemark]] in [[Norway]]) and had them shipped piece by piece to the museum, where they were rebuilt to provide a unique picture of traditional Sweden. Only three of the buildings in the museum are not original, and were painstakingly copied from examples he had found. All of the buildings are open to visitors and show the full range of Swedish life from the Skogaholm Manor house built in 1680, to the 16th century Älvros farmhouses.