Foteviken Museum
Archaeological open-air museum in Vellinge Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Foteviken Museum (Swedish: Fotevikens Museum) is an archaeological open-air museum on the Höllviken peninsula in southern Skåne, Sweden. It contains a reconstruction of a large Viking Age settlement and a "viking reservation", and visitors participate in living history reenactments; it also performs research and functions as the municipal museum of Vellinge Municipality and part of Fotevikens Kulturcenter, a group of cultural facilities on the peninsula.
Fotevikens Museum | |
 | |
| Established | 1995 |
|---|---|
| Location | Höllviken, Skåne, Sweden |
| Coordinates | 55°25′45.41″N 12°57′11.3″E |
| Type | open-air museum |
| Website | www |
History
The museum grew out of the archaeological investigation of sunken viking ships in Foteviken Bay and local interest in the Battle of Fotevik, which was fought there on 4 June 1134. A group headed by Björn M. Buttler Jakobsen formed a foundation called SVEG (Scandinavian Viking Explorer Group) in 1987. In 1993, the foundation started planning to open a maritime museum;[1] in 1995, after changing their focus towards Viking Age living history, they opened Foteviken Museum, with Jakobsen as its director.[2][3] At the Cog Museum in Malmö, the group built two replica viking cogs; in 2014 the city sold these and the harbour site where they are located is now a medieval-themed tourist area called Medeltidsriket Malmöya.[2]
Facilities and programmes
The museum occupies an approximately 70,000-square-metre (17-acre) site on Höllviken Bay. In addition to a reconstruction of a large Viking Age settlement, the 'Viking Reserve', there are research and handicrafts buildings and three large halls, including a restaurant seating up to 200 and a feast hall. The gate to the reserve is indicated on the museum map as a "border gate" between Sweden and the reserve.[4] Buildings in the reserve are built or rebuilt by staff and volunteers almost every season, with traditional methods being supplemented by modern technology in winter;[5] as of 2010[update] there were about 22, including a tapestry-lined chieftain's house[6] and a hof.[7] The reserve opens for the summer season on May Day,[3] and is intended as a recreation of a large settlement late in the Viking Age, during the transition to the Scandinavian Middle Ages and the increasing influence of Christianity in the North.[8] This enables the museum to include the Battle of Fotevik, which clearly belongs to the medieval period.[9] Those staying in the reserve live as Viking Age people[6] and are not permitted to have modern equipment or wear modern clothing.[10] It is marketed as open to "all Vikings"[11] and attracts large numbers of Viking Age reenactors;[2][7] many of the visitors are from outside Scandinavia, particularly from Germany.[12] An international viking thing is held in the Tinghöll building every year; according to the museum, in 2001 66 representatives from 22 countries were present.[9]
The museum has a library which is available for research and makes heavy use of electronic media.[8] It offers various educational programmes, including overnight stays; since it is also the municipal museum of Vellinge, these are free to local schools.[13] However, the reserve has no electricity and minimal signage.[8]
Seasonal programmes
In Midwinter the museum hosts a fire festival.[14] A May Eve bonfire is also lit to reproduce a traditional viking celebration of the return of spring.[15] At these and other events, the director plays the role of 'King Björn'.[3]
Summer activities at the museum climax in Viking Week in late June;[2] this includes craft days[10] and since 1997 a viking market.[9] At the market in summer 2016, five actors in a group who travel between Viking Age reenactment sites, the Nordic International Slave Trade Company, reportedly threw a bag over a tourist's head and auctioned her off as a thrall.[16][17] The police have said they will be speaking to people at the museum about treatment of members of the public.[18]
Gallery
Young "Viking" in "Vikingareservat Foteviken"
Interior of one of the houses
Sculpture of God Wotan, attached at the outside of reconstructed Viking house
Sculpture of Ægir, in Skanör.
- Fetching water in the viking village.
Wall tapestry in a house in the viking village.
Viking Museum Foteviken in Skanör. Viking boats in the water in front of the settlement
Viking Museum Foteviken in Skanör. Carved dragon head
A monk's writing room
Viking war equipment.
Modern helmet in Viking look with nose protection
Wooden house with exposed wall structure
Wall structure of a Viking hut made of straw, clay and wattle
Grassy roof with wooden gutter
Fire pit with sign on the wall.
