NORDIC MUSEUM

Description

Essentials about the Nordic Museum in brief

A visit to the Nordic Museum is a must for all travelers to Stockholm who are interested in Swedish culture. With a collection of one and a half million objects from the last five centuries, the museum is a veritable treasure trove covering all areas of the country’s culture. What’s more, the museum building is one of Sweden’s most beautiful architectural monuments.

The history and architecture of the Nordic Museum

The Nordic Museum was founded in 1873 by the Swedish philologist and ethnographer Artur Hazelius, who also founded the Skansen open-air museum. The Nordic Museum started out as a Scandinavian ethnographic collection in a house in Stockholm. In 1880, the collection was renamed the “Nordic Museum” and transformed into a foundation.

In 1907, the museum moved into its current building on the island of Djurgården. The museum building, designed by architect Isak Gustaf Clason in the neo-Renaissance style, is undoubtedly one of the most imposing buildings in the Swedish capital. The 125 meter long and 24 meter high Renaissance-style building is a real eye-catcher. The size of the building, combined with the numerous small pointed towers on the edge of the roof, makes the Nordic Museum look almost like a fairytale castle from the outside.

The exhibitions at the Nordic Museum

The Nordic Museum is a boundless treasure trove for anyone interested in the cultural history of Sweden. The museum has an incredibly large collection of around 1.5 million exhibits that document life in Sweden since the 16th century in a variety of ways.

In permanent and temporary exhibitions, the museum provides information about the country’s customs and traditions through fashion, traditional costumes, folk art, furniture, paintings, photographs, toys and other everyday objects. The museum’s scientific library contains around 250,000 books.